Buffalo on the Platte River

Worthington Whittredge’s oil painting Buffalo on the Platte River was produced in 1866. The painting shows a western landscape depicting a group of buffalos drinking from a river and other buffalos grazing in the distance near a tree. This style of art was not uncommon during the mid to late 1800’s. A number of artists in America specialized in painting the Great Plains of the United States.

Whittredge’s decision to include buffalos in his landscape is meaningful because during the 1800s, commercial buffalo hunting had increased significantly due to the creation of railroad systems. Although the railroads disturbed Indian lands, large parties of hunters would shoot wild animals from the train cars. This huge increase in hunting resulted in the almost extinction of American bison, a source of food the Indians relied on.

The relationship between humans and animals in this painting is non-existent, which makes the inclusion of the animal important. Whittredge chose to depict the beautiful Great Plains landscape as it is without human intervention. 

From The Blanton website:

"This is a rare western landscape by Thomas Worthington Whittredge: one of the best-known American landscape painters of his generation, he lived in New York and typically painted east coast subjects. But in 1866 he traveled with an army expedition along the eastern portions of the Rocky Mountains and New Mexico, finding himself drawn again and again to “capture the fleeting atmospheric effects of the low rolling landscape,” as he stated in his autobiography. In his writings he reflected on the natural marvels he encountered, stating that he was never captivated by the obvious drama of the mountains, but instead loved the plains, with their vast expanses and uncanny silence. In this placid scene, most likely painted from sketches back in his studio, buffalo graze peacefully under banks of fog, while small disturbances on the water’s surface are quietly noted."

An artist named Theodore R. Davis made a sketch of that style of hunting which appeared in Harpers Weekly on Dec. 14^th, 1867. (The picture below) Davis was an American artist during the 19th century who was famous for painting significant American political or military events.

Human interaction with buffalos is typically only related to hunting. Indians relied on the buffalo for it's meat and hide, but made it a point to use everything. The majority of American hunters however killed the buffalo and 'used' almost none. American hunters also killed the buffalo with guns and from a distance in train cars, while Indians would hunt less often. Indians were given horses and guns which made their hunting easier, but worsened the already decreasing buffalo population. 

Above is Worthington Whittredge's painting Crossing the River Platte (1871) which is included in the White House art collection. In this painting you can see an Indian encampment near the river, Indian men on horses crossing the river. The mass killing of the American bison made it difficult for Indians to find a reliable source of food. Tribes went hungry without having many American bison to hunt. When Texas Legislature was working to pass a bill to protect the buffalos, General Phillip Sheridan defended the removal of Indians and the mass murder of buffalos saying, “Send them powder and lead, if you will; but for a lasting peace, let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated. Then your prairies can be covered with speckled cattle.”

John Fire Lame Deer wrote :"The buffalo gave us everything we needed. Without it we were nothing. Our tipis were made of his skin. His hide was our bed, our blanket, our winter coat. It was our drum, throbbing through the night, alive, holy. Out of his skin we made our water bags. His flesh strengthened us, became flesh of our flesh. Not the smallest part of it was wasted. His stomach, a red-hot stone dropped into it, became our soup kettle. His horns were our spoons, the bones our knives, our women's awls and needles. Out of his sinews we made our bowstrings and thread. His ribs were fashioned into sleds for our children, his hoofs became rattles. His mighty skull, with the pipe leaning against it, was our sacred altar. The name of the greatest of all Sioux was Tatanka Iyotake--Sitting Bull. When you killed off the buffalo you also killed the Indian--the real, natural, "wild" Indian."