Mice Book

Love this book. Robbins captures the magnificence of the largest mammal native to North America with reverance but without being overly sentimental. He describes how buffalo herds were affected when Native Americans migrated to the plains, techniques they used for hunting them, how Native Americans used every part of the buffalo for food, clothing and religious ceremony, how their hunting habits changed as white settlers introduced guns, and finally, how white people made short work of almost extinguishing the entire North American buffalo population by hunting them for sport. Robbins brings ends with the current status of the buffalo population: "The American buffalo is no longer endangered - we certainly ought to be happy about that. But there is one further thing that we should want to remember: the millions are gone, and they will never be back." A great book to start a discussion with students about animal ethics and stewardship.