Buffalo Trails in the Dakota Buttes
Buffalo Trails in the Dakota Buttes
By: Francie M. Berg
Buffalo Trails in the Dakota Buttes takes you to 10 sites of historic and current buffalo events within a relatively small area of rugged buttes and badlands. Softcover, full-color, 6" x 9" format.
Title information
Buffalo Trails takes you to 10 sites of historic and current buffalo events, all within a relatively small area of rugged buttes and badlands at the center of the northern plains. Relive the excitement of the last great buffalo hunts by Lakota and Dakota Sioux people, ancient buffalo jumps, the Native rescue of 5 calves that changed history, and restoration of buffalo herds on tribal lands, private ranches and public parks. Softcover, full color, 6”x 9” format.
Francie M. Berg
Francie M. Berg is a teacher, historian and author of fifteen books, with strong homestead and ranching roots in the Old West. Born at home in the Missouri River Breaks, she grew up on a Montana ranch and lives in Hettinger, North Dakota, within a few miles of her grandparents’ South Dakota homestead and the center of a fascinating buffalo heritage of which she writes in Buffalo Trails in the Dakota Buttes and its companion book Buffalo Heartbeats Across the Plains. Her books on western history include: North Dakota Land of Changing Seasons, South Dakota Land of Shining Gold, Wyoming Land of Echoing Canyons, Ethnic Heritage in North Dakota and the Last Great Buffalo Hunts: Traditional Hunts in 1880-1883 by Teton Lakota. She has worked as a county extension agent, and taught high school, college and adult education. A graduate of Montana State University in Bozeman, Berg has a master’s degree in family and anthropology from the University of Minnesota.
Lauren Donova - Bismarck Tribune
For people willing to leave the asphalt and launch themselves into empty reaches of prairie that were once part of the Great Sioux Nation, the story unfolds in the scenery, in the imagination and in the history. . . This tour is for those willing to take a chance at getting lost in search of the lost history of heartbreak. It could take a day or three, even longer, depending on how many of the 10 points of interest one seeks.
The handbook, with detailed driving directions, encourages history-seekers to venture out on a bumpy two-track trail in government-owned pasture—then crawl under a barb wire fence. One stands, brushing off dirty knees to look, and there below is a lazy curve of the South Grand River, bordered by old gnarly cottonwood trees.
It is here, or somewhere near, where Pete Dupree came in 1880 or 1881 to rescue five buffalo calves. [He] They set out for the buffalo ranges and returned with five strong young buffalo calves—and helped change history.
Sara Otte Coleman, director of North Dakota Tourism, said the tour dovetails other multistate western experiences that appeal especially to international visitors. “Those visitors are really interested in buffalo and the story of the American West,” she said. “This fits very well.”
Lauren Donovan
Bismarck Tribune Nov. 20, 2016
Cole Benz, Editor Adams County Record
Among the stops is the valley of the last stand, where the final harvest of 1,200 buffalo was conducted by Sitting Bull and his group. The stop in Bison was included to recognize the Pete Dupree family, which has been internationally recognized as helping to preserve the species when they saved five buffalo calves and ingratiated them with their own herd of cows, nursing them to mature animals.
In conjunction with the tour, the Dakota Buttes Visitors Council will be publishing two books that will act as guides to the tour. “Buffalo Trails in the Dakota Buttes” will be the [88] 70//-page guide that takes visitors on the tour and gives them brief descriptions of the locations as well as tidbits of information on the historical sites. A larger, companion book will be more in depth with more photos and act as sort of a ‘coffee table’ book for interested parties to take with and flip through off the trail.
Cole Benz, Editor, Nov. 4, 2016
Adams County Record, Hettinger, ND
Linda Sailer - Dickinson Press
Steve and Roxann McFarland, who ranch 20 miles south of Hettinger, are accustomed to seeing travelers stop on the highway to take pictures of their buffalo herd. Steve expects the number of tourists to increase when the Buffalo Trails tours are launched.
“We have two hunting cabins on the ranch, and we could serve buffalo burgers for a noon lunch. It’s something we’re thinking about,” he said. Referencing the Buffalo Trails tour, Steve concluded, “I think it’s a good thing.”
The McFarland’s are fourth-generation buffalo producers. Steve’s great-grandfather started with two heifers and a bull. His grandfather and dad continued to produce buffalo; and Steve’s son may come back to the ranch after college.
Linda Sailer, Dickinson Press
Dickinson, ND, Dec 18, 2016
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