| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 34.3

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| Book Review | The Western Historical Quarterly, 34.3 | The History Cooperative

*American Bison: A Natural History*. By Dale F. Lott. Foreword by Harry W. Greene. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. xvi + 220 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $29.95, £19.95.)
Dale F. Lott has a direct and simple goal: to write a natural history of bison, telling how those creatures "get on in this world" (p. xiii). Despite this seemingly modest aim, the story of buffalo has become much more complex in the historiography of the past two decades. Notable historians such as Elliott West, Dan Flores, and Andrew Isenberg have tackled the complexities of buffalo and their interconnections with Indians, hidesmen, cattle, grasses, the climate, and numerous other factors. In light of that intricacy, Lott's book becomes all the more impressive.	1
Dividing his book into six parts, Lott sets out to understand bison themselves, as a vital part of the Great Plains environment and as a keystone species with important links to a wide range of other animals. In part one, we learn about the relationships between male and female buffalo and between mothers and calves. Part two details "the machinery of a bison's life," including the movement (or "bison athletics"), digestion, and body temperature maintenance of buffalo. However, Lott does not limit himself to the biology of bison.	. . .

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