A mountain of bison skulls, circa 1892
The photograph was taken in 1892 at the Michigan Carbon Works near Detroit. Two men stand among a mountain of bison skulls, one at its base and the other near its summit. They appear very small. The dead animals do not appear small at all.
Only a few decades earlier, tens of millions of bison had moved across the Great Plains. Their herds could darken the ground to the horizon. They fed and clothed Indigenous nations, provided tools and shelter, and occupied a central place in ceremonies and stories that had endured for generations.
