Lords of the Prairies - An Epitaph : a Tribute To the Bison

Dressed in my shaggy brown coat I stand nearly six feet at my shoulders and weigh almost a ton My brethren and I once roamed the prairies in herds of millions grazing on its grass which fed and nourished us for tens of thousands of years Running at speeds of over thirty five miles per hour across the prairies in herds that stretched as far as the eye could see our hooves created a thunderous sound that shook the earth causing it to tremble like an earthquake When packs of wolves attacked us we surrounded our calves kept our heads down flashed our horns and charged them to fight them off At times though we were not able to save our young our old and ill brethren when they were separated from the protection of the herd The redskins were the only human beings we knew at that time Though they hunted us with bows and arrows to feed themselves and to satisfy their desire for shelter and other needs they did not waste any part of our bodies They respected us and we respected them We lived in harmony for thousands of years It was the advent of the whiteskins that initiated our decimation They brought in large four-legged creatures that could keep up with and even outrun us The redskins realized this tamed those creatures sat on their backs and hunted us using their bows and arrows like they did before They killed more of us but again they took only as much as they needed and did not waste any part of our bodies so we continued to co-exist in harmony It was that long mysterious stick that the whiteskins brought in that triggered our demise From a great distance it made a loud noise and something hit us that we could not see but it inflicted severe pain and agony Some of us fell to the ground and died quickly while others struggled but were injured so badly that they died soon after We were helpless against this long mysterious stick We were slaughtered in our millions They left our dead bodies to rot and decay where we fell Sometimes they took away our coats Other times they cut out our tongues only and left the rest of our dead bodies to putrefy and decay on the prairie grasslands that we had trod on proudly for thousands of years This is my epitaph for I just saw the glint of the sunlight on the long mysterious stick heard its thunder and felt something go deep into my insides as I fall to the ground I am on way to meet my proud ancestors who once roamed these lands in freedom as Lords Of The Prairies