{"product_id":"american-buffalo-in-search-of-a-lost-icon-paperback","title":"American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAmerican Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eby \u003cb\u003eSteven Rinella\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAmerican Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e by Steven Rinella combines a demanding Alaskan hunt with a far-reaching exploration of the animal that helped shape North American history, culture, and identity.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn 2005, Rinella received a rare lottery permit to hunt wild American bison in the Alaskan wilderness. The odds were daunting. Only a small percentage of applicants received a permit, and relatively few successful applicants ultimately harvested an animal.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRinella managed to take a buffalo on a snow-covered mountainside, but the hunt was only the beginning of the ordeal. He then faced the difficult task of processing the animal and transporting the meat back toward civilization by raft.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlong the way, he dealt with brutal weather, the threat of grizzly bears, physical exhaustion, and the effects of hypothermia. The experience forced him to consider not only his own role as a hunter, but also his place within a hunting tradition extending back thousands of years.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Buffalo Hunt and a Journey Through History\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt its center, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAmerican Buffalo\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is the story of Rinella’s pursuit of an American bison.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYet the book extends far beyond a single hunt. Rinella uses the experience as a starting point for examining the buffalo’s long and complicated relationship with the people of North America.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe explores how the animal supported Indigenous cultures, influenced migration and settlement, became a commercial resource, and nearly disappeared through widespread killing and industrial exploitation.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe result is both an outdoor adventure and an investigation into the historical forces that turned an animal once numbering in enormous herds into a symbol of loss, survival, and conservation.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFourteen Thousand Years of Buffalo Hunters\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhile reflecting on his own hunt, Rinella considers the many generations of people who pursued buffalo before him.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eArchaeological evidence shows that humans have hunted bison in North America for thousands of years. Those relationships changed across time, but the animal consistently played an important role in food, clothing, tools, trade, ceremony, and survival.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRinella travels through these layers of history, placing his modern hunt within a much larger human story.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe considers what it means to kill and use a buffalo responsibly while recognizing the cultural, ecological, and historical importance of the species.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom the Bering Land Bridge to Buffalo Jumps\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRinella’s investigation carries him across the continent in search of the buffalo’s past.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe visits the Bering Land Bridge region, where researchers study ancient buffalo remains alongside evidence of some of North America’s earliest human inhabitants.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe also explores buffalo jumps, where Indigenous hunters used detailed knowledge of animal behavior and terrain to drive herds over cliffs. These sites reveal the scale, organization, and skill involved in communal buffalo hunting long before the arrival of modern firearms.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThrough these locations, the book shows how closely human communities were connected to the movements and survival of bison herds.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Commercial Destruction of the Buffalo\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe story also follows the buffalo into the era of industrial exploitation.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDuring the nineteenth century, enormous numbers of buffalo were killed for their hides, meat, and bones. Even remains scattered across the plains became valuable commodities.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRinella examines operations such as the Detroit Carbon Works, where buffalo bones were processed into products including fertilizer, pigment, and materials used in manufacturing.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis history demonstrates how thoroughly the animal was converted into a commercial resource and how economic demand contributed to its rapid decline.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe near destruction of the buffalo was not simply the result of hunting. It was tied to industrial expansion, westward settlement, government policy, and efforts to reshape the people and landscapes of the American West.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Story Behind the Buffalo Nickel\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRinella also traces the unusual story of Black Diamond, a captive buffalo associated with the image used for the American buffalo nickel.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBlack Diamond lived in New York and eventually met his fate in an area that later became Manhattan’s fashionable Meatpacking District.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis episode captures one of the book’s recurring themes: the contrast between the buffalo as a powerful national symbol and the often troubling ways real animals were treated.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe buffalo could represent freedom, wilderness, strength, and national character while simultaneously being confined, commercialized, and nearly eliminated.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Symbol of the American Experience\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFew animals are as closely connected to the history and imagination of the United States as the American buffalo.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe species has represented abundance, wilderness, destruction, resilience, and the possibility of recovery. Its story intersects with Indigenous history, western expansion, industrialization, conservation, public lands, and modern hunting.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRinella examines these contradictions without reducing the animal to a simple symbol.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eInstead, he presents the buffalo as a living creature with an ecological role, a cultural history, and a continuing place in the American landscape.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHunting, Conservation, and Responsibility\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe book also explores the relationship between hunting and conservation.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRinella’s hunt requires him to confront the realities of taking an animal’s life, recovering the meat, and making full use of the animal under difficult conditions.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis experience raises questions about ethical hunting, personal responsibility, wildlife management, and the difference between seeing an animal as an abstract symbol and encountering it directly in the wild.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe buffalo’s recovery from near extinction is one of North America’s most significant conservation stories, but the species still exists within a landscape shaped and managed by people.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAmerican Buffalo\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e considers what that recovery means and what obligations remain.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOutdoor Adventure Meets Environmental History\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eReaders will find several interconnected stories within the book:\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA rare Alaskan buffalo hunt\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA difficult wilderness meat recovery\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe history of American bison hunting\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIndigenous relationships with buffalo\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe commercial slaughter of the great herds\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eArchaeological research into early North American hunters\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe cultural symbolism of the buffalo\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe rise of wildlife conservation\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe ethics of hunting and using wild game\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe buffalo’s place in America’s past and future\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRinella combines personal narrative, historical research, natural history, and outdoor writing in a way that makes the book accessible to hunters and general readers alike.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAn Award-Winning American Nature Book\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAmerican Buffalo\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e received the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award and was selected as a best book of the year by the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe book has been recognized for the way it connects a gripping hunting narrative with broader questions about history, wildlife, conservation, and national identity.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt is an engaging choice for readers interested in Steven Rinella, American bison, hunting history, wildlife conservation, environmental writing, and the changing relationship between people and wild animals.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSteven Rinella is an outdoorsman, hunter, wild-game cook, author, and television and podcast personality known for communicating hunting, fishing, conservation, and wild-food traditions to a broad audience.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe is the host of the television series and podcast \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMeatEater\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. His books include \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMeat Eater: Adventures from the Life of an American Hunter\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and the two-volume \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eComplete Guide to Hunting, Butchering, and Cooking Wild Game\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"isSelectedEnd\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRinella’s writing has appeared in publications including \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOutside\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eField \u0026amp; Stream\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMen’s Journal\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSalon\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBowhunter\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and other national outlets.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHis work frequently examines the connections among hunting, food, wildlife, public lands, and conservation.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 304\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.66 x 7.94 x 5.3 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 15, 2009\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47247720906940,"sku":"9780385521697","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7081\/9004\/files\/american-buffalo-steven-rinella-book-cover.webp?v=1786118139","url":"https:\/\/www.jbicklesbee.com\/products\/american-buffalo-in-search-of-a-lost-icon-paperback","provider":"JBicklesbee","version":"1.0","type":"link"}