Word: buffalo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost IconBy Steven RinellaSpiegel & Grau; 277 pages...
...Gist: Rinella one-ups his previous book, The Scavenger's Guide to Haute Cuisine (we're talking pigeons, sparrows, raccoons, etc.), by going after the massive and mythical buffalo. "In the spring of 2005," he writes, "the state of Alaska announced that it was issuing twenty-four hunting permits for the Copper River buffalo herd." He and 1,302 other hunters sent in their applications. Rinella won a permit, and off he went, on both a literal and an intellectual expedition, hoping to get one of the creatures in his rifle sights while also exploring the history, misconceptions and science...
Highlight Reel:1. On "buffalo jumps," places where hunters would chase buffalo off the side of a cliff and then reap the rewards at the bottom of the fall: "The Blackfoot term for a buffalo jump is pishkun, which translates roughly to 'deep blood kettle' ... Anyone whose sensitivities are disturbed by modern slaughterhouse practices would be utterly repulsed by the mayhem at the foot of a buffalo jump. In the fall, buffalo suffered compound fractures. Splintered femurs were driven far enough into bodies to puncture stomachs and spill contents. Buffalo landed on other buffalo. Their horns and hooves ripped into...
...grubbiness of buffalo-hide hunters in the 1800s: "Their blankets would get so full of lice and bedbugs that they'd lay them on anthills so that ants could carry away the larvae. The hunters would often eat little else besides buffalo. Beginners, or 'tenderfeet,' would start out eating prime cuts, but within months they suffered nutrient deficiencies that caused their tongues to break out in lesions ... Some hunters seasoned meat with gunpowder for a peppery effect. If they were away from water, they'd open a dead buffalo's stomach and use their fingers to filter out the bits...
...shooting a buffalo: "Killing a large animal inevitably gives me a sense of sorrow. I know it will hit me before it does, the way you go to bed drunk knowing you'll be hungover in the morning. It hurts as I run my fingers through the tangled mane of the buffalo's neck. The animal feels so solid, so substantive ... Seeing the dead buffalo, I feel an amalgamation of many things: thankfulness for the meat, an appreciation for the animal's beauty, a regard for the history of the species and, yes, a touch of guilt...