What do you think?
Rate this book
Bisons des Grandes Plaines
La bouleversante histoire des hommes et des bisons : un plaidoyer écologique
Les grands troupeaux, garants de l’écosystème des Grandes Plaines, dominaient la prairie jusqu’à leur génocide, à l’époque de Buffalo Bill. Menacés d’extinction à la fin du XIXe siècle, ils n’ont dû leur survie qu’à ceux qui ont préservé leur existence et le fragile équilibre écologique des Grandes Plaines.
Voix puissante du nature writing et expert de la faune et de la flore, Dan O’Brien gère la Wild Idea Buffalo Company, l’élevage extensif de bisons qu’il a créé en 1997. Il raconte ici l’histoire du bison et le symbolisme, central dans la culture amérindienne, de cette icône des Grandes Plaines. wildideabuffalo.com
Les grands troupeaux, garants de l’écosystème des Grandes Plaines, dominaient la prairie jusqu’à leur génocide, à l’époque de Buffalo Bill. Menacés d’extinction à la fin du XIXe siècle, ils n’ont dû leur survie qu’à ceux qui ont préservé leur existence et le fragile équilibre écologique des Grandes Plaines.
Voix puissante du nature writing et expert de la faune et de la flore, Dan O’Brien gère la Wild Idea Buffalo Company, l’élevage extensif de bisons qu’il a créé en 1997. Il raconte ici l’histoire du bison et le symbolisme, central dans la culture amérindienne, de cette icône des Grandes Plaines. wildideabuffalo.com
- GenresNonfictionNature
164 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2017
4 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
About the author
Dan O'Brien
18 books57 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Dan O'Brien was born Daniel Hosler O'Brien in Findlay Ohio on November 23, 1947. He attended Findlay High School and graduated in 1966. He went to Michigan Technological University to play football and graduated with a BS degree in Math and Business from Findlay College in 1970 where he was the chairman of the first campus Earth Day. He earned an MA in English Literature from the University of South Dakota in 1973 where he studied under Frederick Manfred. He earned an MFA from Bowling Green University (of Ohio) in 1974, worked as a biologist and wrote for a few years before entering the PhD program at Denver University. When he won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction in 1986 he gave up academics except for occasional short term teaching jobs. O'Brien continued to write and work as an endangered species biologist for the South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks and later the Peregrine Fund. In the late 1990s he began to change his small cattle ranch in South Dakota to a buffalo ranch. In 2001 he founded Wild Idea Buffalo Company and Sustainable Harvest Alliance to produce large landscape, grass fed and field harvest buffalo to supply high quality and sustainable buffalo meat to people interested in human health and the health of the American Great Plains. He now raises buffalo and lives on the Cheyenne River Ranch in western South Dakota with his wife Jill. Dan O'Brien is the winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, two National Endowment for the Arts Grants for fiction, A Bush Foundation Award for writing, a Spur Award, two Wrangler Awards from the National cowboy Hall of Fame, and an honorary PhD from the University of South Dakota. His books have been translated into seven foreign languages and his essays, reviews, and short stories have been published in many periodicals including, Redbook, New York Times Magazine, FYI. New York Times Book Review.
Dan O'Brien was born Daniel Hosler O'Brien in Findlay Ohio on November 23, 1947. He attended Findlay High School and graduated in 1966. He went to Michigan Technological University to play football and graduated with a BS degree in Math and Business from Findlay College in 1970 where he was the chairman of the first campus Earth Day. He earned an MA in English Literature from the University of South Dakota in 1973 where he studied under Frederick Manfred. He earned an MFA from Bowling Green University (of Ohio) in 1974, worked as a biologist and wrote for a few years before entering the PhD program at Denver University. When he won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction in 1986 he gave up academics except for occasional short term teaching jobs. O'Brien continued to write and work as an endangered species biologist for the South Dakota Department of Game Fish and Parks and later the Peregrine Fund. In the late 1990s he began to change his small cattle ranch in South Dakota to a buffalo ranch. In 2001 he founded Wild Idea Buffalo Company and Sustainable Harvest Alliance to produce large landscape, grass fed and field harvest buffalo to supply high quality and sustainable buffalo meat to people interested in human health and the health of the American Great Plains. He now raises buffalo and lives on the Cheyenne River Ranch in western South Dakota with his wife Jill. Dan O'Brien is the winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, two National Endowment for the Arts Grants for fiction, A Bush Foundation Award for writing, a Spur Award, two Wrangler Awards from the National cowboy Hall of Fame, and an honorary PhD from the University of South Dakota. His books have been translated into seven foreign languages and his essays, reviews, and short stories have been published in many periodicals including, Redbook, New York Times Magazine, FYI. New York Times Book Review.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 10, 2021
We think we know what happened to the American Bison (aka the buffalo): ran wild throughout the Great Plains in numbers we can't imagine, hunted by Native Americans, and decimated by white settlers. Now it's a good alternative to beef cattle when you want a good burger.
But that's a sliver of the real story, and Dan O'Brien has the authority to tell it. He's done the research and lived the life, and because he is one of the best American writers working his craft today, he can tell the story as no one else could.
Like a fine needle through deep tapestry, O'Brien threads us through what we think we know to the real truth. What impact on the buffalo did running them over cliffs have? What impact on the ecosystem did decimating buffalo populations have?
If you've ever seen a buffalo in the (relative) wild, you've no doubt been struck by the wary wisdom it carries in its eyes and the confidence in its gait. Every time I see one, I'm awed and humbled. As my husband can attest, I can watch them for hours. There's a lot we can learn from them, and Dan O'Brien -- a buffalo rancher -- is the best interpreter we could ask for.
This thin book (about a hundred pages) adds substantial weight to our understanding of this country's terrible history with a magnificent creature.
But that's a sliver of the real story, and Dan O'Brien has the authority to tell it. He's done the research and lived the life, and because he is one of the best American writers working his craft today, he can tell the story as no one else could.
Like a fine needle through deep tapestry, O'Brien threads us through what we think we know to the real truth. What impact on the buffalo did running them over cliffs have? What impact on the ecosystem did decimating buffalo populations have?
If you've ever seen a buffalo in the (relative) wild, you've no doubt been struck by the wary wisdom it carries in its eyes and the confidence in its gait. Every time I see one, I'm awed and humbled. As my husband can attest, I can watch them for hours. There's a lot we can learn from them, and Dan O'Brien -- a buffalo rancher -- is the best interpreter we could ask for.
This thin book (about a hundred pages) adds substantial weight to our understanding of this country's terrible history with a magnificent creature.
January 30, 2021
An approachable history of bison on the Great Plains. I appreciate Dan O'Brien's matter-of-fact writing style and outlook on the future of bison on the Great Plains. I will read more by this author to better grasp the region where I live.
May 25, 2018
This work will be reviewed in the weekly feature, Plains Folk. O'Brien is a visionary with ideas to be heard about the future of bison and the Great Plains. The book is flawed, but not to be dismissed.
December 4, 2017
A solid, short introduction to the Bison. It is strongest on the topics the author knows best, agriculture and ecology.
June 12, 2018
What have we done? This well-written book is about one of the great ecological catastrophes in human history--how human beings have in the last few centuries ruined the thousands years old ecosystem of the Great Plains. Not only did we slaughter the bison to near extinction and commit genocide against the nations of the Plains, we ruined the entire habitat with our plowing, irrigation, pesticides, GMO crops, etc. If you thought the sad part of this story ended a hundred years ago, and we began improving things after the Dust Bowl, O'Brien's book will surprise, for the catastrophe continues apace.
But he is a good writer, with a beautiful imagination, so this is not a depressing read. Hopefully it is a call to action for those of us who love the Plains.
But he is a good writer, with a beautiful imagination, so this is not a depressing read. Hopefully it is a call to action for those of us who love the Plains.
November 5, 2017
Another astoundingly good book by Dan O'Brien. His latest "Great Plains Bison" journeys us through a couple hundred thousand years with a focus on the last 200 years, American Indians, US Calvary, personalities, ecosystems, even to GMOs. 100 pages of the story of our amazing bison. A great read as all of his books are. Conservationsists, historians, farmers, naturalists, and just plain ol' Americans will love this "bioptic". A history lesson, and a love story between Dan and the mosaic of the Great Plains.
November 16, 2020
A brief read that offers a redacted history of Buffalo on the Great Plains and ends with a critique of the latter day effort to conserve and commercially exploit the remaining herds. However, the author’s description of the dysfunctionality of modern agricultural policy and the need for a less anthropocentric approach, both to Buffalo, the Great Plains and to conservation generally, should not be ignored
December 5, 2020
Great Plains Bison offers a well documented history of the bison from the once massive herds to the brink of extinction. Dan O'Brien does not sugar coat the decimation of not only the bison but the grasslands due to homesteading and now mono crops. Tragedy which needs a reckoning.
January 22, 2024
🐦📖 3⭐️ This was a book club book. Thankfully, it was only 101 pages, as this is not my typical book. Because of this, I don't feel qualified to rate it any higher than 3 stars. While I was dreading reading this pick, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
February 3, 2022
Let's get the bison back on our nickels!
May 31, 2023
A really well written history of the Bison and the Great Plains. Highly recommend, it is quite thought provoking about the greater picture of conservation in America.
April 6, 2019
I think buffalo are beautiful.
This book made me sad and mad.
I learned quite a bit.
This book made me sad and mad.
I learned quite a bit.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews