Centuries ago, herds of bison roamed the Great Plains, numbering in the tens of millions. One of the most populous mammal species in North America, enormous herds of the animals grazed and migrated across huge stretches of grasslands and provided one of the primary sources of food, hide and bone to countless Native American tribes throughout the region.

By the end of the 19th century, the American bison had declined to near extinction, in part due to killing by Americans intended to deprive Native people of their traditional source of sustenance in an effort to force them to reservations.

The species has rebounded since then — in part due to a thriving agricultural industry that raises bison as a beef alternative, but those animals have interbred with domestic cattle, becoming something

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