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Close your eyes and try to picture a buffalo standing before you. Imagine an animal that is 12 feet long and about 6 feet tall and weighs 2,000 pounds. He is massive! Now try to imagine the open plain – there are no fences or barriers. Picture a few buffalo grazing on the grassland. Imagine a few more. Now, imagine a lot more! It would be really difficult to picture the vast number of buffalo that roamed the plains in the 1800s. Experts have estimated the number to be between 30 million and 60 million! That is a hard number to try to visualize! Buffalo – or more accurately, American Bison – were essential for the Native American’s survival. They never hu nted buffalo for sport; they only killed what they needed. For thousands of years the Native Americans relied on buffalo for food and materials. No part of the buffalo went to waste (see chart). Although the Indians killed a large number of buffalo, the decrease in their population was not noticeable. At the rate that they hunted the buffalo, it would have been impossible for the Native Americans to cause their extinction.