Medicine Trails
Encyclopedia
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
, elk
Red Deer
The red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
, horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
s, and deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
led early people out of the harsh full regions of the Ice Age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
and centuries later, the made the way for most of influential explores during the exploration of the west. Some of these trails survive as modern highways.
Native Americans
Bison have migrated over the northern land bridgeLand bridge
A land bridge, in biogeography, is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and colonise new lands...
for many years. Not only until the later into the Ice Age had humans followed these creatures. Humans followed them and settled in modern New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. Once the Ice Age finished, those humans found their settlement turning drier and hotter so the followed a herd of bison to the east and settled in, today referred as, the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
. Once the land bridge melted, it forced the bison to stop their migration, therefore they also settled in the Great Plains. Tribes also settled on bison migration routes; for instance these tribes can hunt buffalo on an annual basis. Horses were introduced to North America by Spanish explorers in the 16th century. As the horses bred and became wild, they formed herds which migrated on a limited scale (compared to buffalo). Herds of wild horses supplied Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
tribes with the means to create the horse culture of the great plains.
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
led exploration into the mid-west, yet migrating animals led Boone there in his expedition. From Virginia to Kentucky, many Indian tribes gave their trails, which were carved out by buffalo migration, and linked them together to make one trail called The Wilderness Trail, or Daniel Boones Trail. After the trail was opened, Daniel Boone decided to extend the trail to Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, following masses of bison estimated as high as sixty million.
Lewis & Clark
Lewis and Clark followed bison and horses in their expedition. “The whol face of the country was covered with herds of Buffaloe…” explains Meriwether Lewis as written in his journal while crossing the Great Plains along the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark followed horses through impassable rapids since migrating horses are known to follow along rivers. The Rocky MountainsRocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
seemed as almost an impossible to climb, but as they followed migrating bison, they found passages and gaps that they would have never have found if it weren’t for migrating bison.
The Santa Fe Trail
The buffalo migration impacted the smooth and mild Santa Fe TrailSanta Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...
. On September 1, 1821, Captain William Becknell
William Becknell
William Becknell was a freight operator who established the Santa Fe Trail.Becknell was born in Amherst County, Virginia. He left Franklin, Missouri in September 1821 on his first trip to the western US with a load of freight to deliver to Santa Fe, New Mexico...
left Arrow Rock
Arrow Rock, Missouri
Arrow Rock is a village in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 79 as of the 2000 Census . The musical Tom Sawyer , based on the novel by Mark Twain, was filmed here. Arrow Rock Historic District has significant properties and the George Caleb Bingham House has been designated...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
to explore the southwest. Most people doubted that he would find the trail to Santa Fe including his arrival back to Arrow Rock. He came back four months later with a map of the trail. Mapping the trail would have not been successful without the guidance of migrating buffalo. These buffaloes led him to water sources; a constant guarantee of survival in the desert. Although this trail was easy to follow, it was between the United States and French territories. The area was called ‘neutral zone’ and was unprotected since no one claimed it. Hence, travelers on the trail encountered many robberies. By 1880 a railroad, now referred as the Santa Fe Railroad, was built on the trail which increased trade between Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
and the Western United States.