Dances With Wolves

Today has been a slow day in the land of wonder. Nothing profound to report on today.  Not that anything thus far has been particularly profound.  But it's just been one of those days.  Maybe my brain is as frozen as everything else today. 

Temperatures should not be measured with single digits. 

We drive past a buffalo herd on the way to church.  I like the way they get a coating of snow on them that doesn't melt.  Shows how thick their buffalo coats are.  I wondered how they manage to not freeze when it is below zero.  I can see that their backs are all nice and warm but what about their feet and noses?  I can't keep my feet and nose warm in the house let alone outside.   So I decided to read a little about bison on Wikipedia.  We've all heard the facts about how many there were and how they were practically hunted to extinction.  I knew about some of the reasons they were hunted.  Coats.  They got in the way of trains.  Removing them removed Native Americans.  They competed with cattle.  But one thing I found interesting was the hide was in demand because it was desired for leather belts to run machinery in eastern factories.  So I learned a little possible Jeopardy trivia. 

Buffalo are the Native Americans of the cow world.  You could definitely draw some parallels on the way both were treated. 

Plains Indians had one of the best diets going in their day and age.  Bison is good for you.  It's lower in calories, fat and cholesterol than beef and has iron and Vitamin B-12. 

Between 1978 and 1992, nearly five times as many people in Yellowstone National Park were killed or injured by bison as by bears (12 by bears, 56 by bison).  So stay in your car. 

There is a place in Canada called Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. 

Bison is the mascot of Clearfield High School in Clearfield, PA.  Marty was a Bison. 

Tatonka.