I love finding a great read. The more books I finish, the harder that seems, but thanks to the Kansas Room Director at the Hays Public Library, I found a book to buy for my personal library so I can revisit it any time I want.
Local history buffs meet in the Kansas room every Thursday, and this director overhears discussions that cover everything from Volga German and Bukovina immigration to The Flippers to fossils to where’d the bones from Boot Hill get relocated. Apparently, he observed I love wildlife topics past and present so one day he handed me Dan Flores’ "American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains."
There wasn’t any magic in figuring I’d love this book. I’m an avid Great Plains and natural history student and conversations regarding these topics grab my attention. It doesn’t hurt to toss in archeological and paleontological details. Bless my parents and later my husband for numerous side trips leading to Indian ruins, museums, petroglyphs, dinosaur tracks, mammoth, fossil fish, and other prehistoric beast digs, and wildlife sightings.
I happily report Flores takes readers through Great Plains natural history from before the Pleistocene to the present. His solid research logically debunks myth and supports points with evidence. While I felt he pushed uncomfortable boundaries involving reinstituting an American Serengeti, Flores makes me think and explore additional sources to develop those thoughts.
Reading his chapters on the pronghorn, coyote, horse, grizzly, bison, and wolf had me repeatedly flipping pages to revisit interesting points. For instance, in grade school, I learned about dawn horse and how it began in North America. Somehow, I forgot equines are native to North America and followed the narrative that Spaniards introduced them to the New World. Flores’ horse chapter reminded me these creatures actually began on this continent’s grasslands and grazed alongside bison herds once they returned.
Years earlier, I learned how pronghorn eye placement and speed resulted as they evolved to escape large, swift cats like saber-tooth tigers that haven’t lived in North America since the Pleistocene. Flores reminded me that despite a lack of serious predators, speedgoats see and outrun any perceived threat.
As a 6th generation Kansan familiar with historic buffalo ranges, I read and reread the bison chapter, which altered several of my pre-conceived notions. Flores focused on statistics involving climatology, economics, cultural practices, disease, and more regarding this population’s repeated waxing and waning. Text books and popular culture had drilled into me the simple reason for the species’ near demise—the U.S. government wanted them wiped out to destroy natives’ resources. After reading and reviewing the author’s citations, I see that, like much history, explanations are more complicated than they initially appear.
Citing numerous reliable resources, he debunks the theory that the government via the military supported destroying all buffalo. Flores’ citation of General Sheridan who wrote, “I consider it important that this wholesale slaughter of the Buffalo should be stopped” forced me to rethink what I’d learned about him. Flores’ research reveals multiple players and rationales in this tragedy.
While this book won’t interest all readers, anyone who loves the prairie and seeks natural history and wildlife knowledge will find new tangents to explore. It’s not too academic—but--you can’t watch Guardians of the Galaxy and follow this text at the same time.
Karen Madorin is a retired teacher, writer, photographer, outdoors lover, and sixth-generation Kansan.