Tame the Bison

What if US Bison (the Great Plains and North-West Wood Bison) were alot less ornery and more capable of being domesticated? How would this affect their range spread in the Americas (given their prescence is spread from New York to Oregon before major massacres) and cultures interacting with them?
 
Then the Plains indians would be more like the Mongels. Once they domesticated the bison and acquired horses their population density would increase and the white man might not find them such a push over. For one thing the herds the tribes depended on would be protected by armed herdsmen.

Same result in the long run though, stone age civilisation vs guns, no contest.:(
 
The Americas are lacking good domesticable (is that a word?) animals like horses and cattle. A big meatproducer like the bison could mean a world of difference in the long run.

Let's assume that some indians domesticates the bison around year 1000 BC. It could be earlier or later than that. Suddenly the indians have a reliable food source that also could be used for carrying things. Someone would sooner or later invent the wheel. That would make trade among the tribes easier and spread the tamed bison outside it's original areas. However, I doubt bisons would be spread to South America - to many deserts on the way.

If anyone tried agriculture bison would help to remove stones, tree stumps, draw plows and fertalise the earth. The bison would make the North American indians far more advanced and numerous by 1492 - maybe so many that they had invented early metallurgy and writing. But without horses we won't see cowboys or mongols.

By having a lot of bisons around (and definetly by being far more numerous) the North American indians would have gotten exposed to far more diseases than IOTL, and accuired at least some resistance. The conquest of North America will be far more difficult and the indian culture be far more able to survive, but in the end the indians will lose.
 
The Americas are lacking good domesticable (is that a word?) animals like horses and cattle. A big meatproducer like the bison could mean a world of difference in the long run.

Let's assume that some indians domesticates the bison around year 1000 BC. It could be earlier or later than that. Suddenly the indians have a reliable food source that also could be used for carrying things. Someone would sooner or later invent the wheel. That would make trade among the tribes easier and spread the tamed bison outside it's original areas. However, I doubt bisons would be spread to South America - to many deserts on the way.

If anyone tried agriculture bison would help to remove stones, tree stumps, draw plows and fertalise the earth. The bison would make the North American indians far more advanced and numerous by 1492 - maybe so many that they had invented early metallurgy and writing. But without horses we won't see cowboys or mongols.

By having a lot of bisons around (and definetly by being far more numerous) the North American indians would have gotten exposed to far more diseases than IOTL, and accuired at least some resistance. The conquest of North America will be far more difficult and the indian culture be far more able to survive, but in the end the indians will lose.

I seriously doubt that they would still be a Plains Indian Culture. They still lack ways of making permanent settlements (No trees :rolleyes:) and would not necesarily be swapping diseases.

Stone Age people had domesticated Animals, and had many diseases emerge. But they lacked the constant contact between societies to keep those diseases going. There were probably many thousands of Measle/Distemper crossovers to people, but only one made it to modern day. Each one of those would probably have killed a few Villages before killing off to many people and burning out.

The Indians would be in a 'middle Ages' of sort where people were still dying of diseases in droves, with no renaisance to improve health.
 
But without horses we won't see cowboys or mongols.
Whe could see BisonBoys - All it would take is some Indian Genius inventing the Saddle.[Bison are ride-able - Wild west shows sometime have Bison Riders as a act]
 
Whe could see BisonBoys - All it would take is some Indian Genius inventing the Saddle.[Bison are ride-able - Wild west shows sometime have Bison Riders as a act]

If they are domesticated early enough, they could reach Mesoamerica (at least the north of OTL Aztec Empire) by the time of Conquest.
 
Here is a map of their original range. As it can be seen they do not do well in desert regions, so while it is possible to get them to Mexico it would take a strong economic or otherwise region to force a number to southern Mexico. Probably down the Gulf of Mexico.

 
Here is a map of their original range. As it can be seen they do not do well in desert regions, so while it is possible to get them to Mexico it would take a strong economic or otherwise region to force a number to southern Mexico. Probably down the Gulf of Mexico.


I was thinking of Mexico Valley proper as the extreme point of range, if a domesticated variety could acclimatatate there over time. I see that non-domesticated varieties go as far south as San Luis Potosí, so it wouldn't be so difficult if a proper range of time is given.
 
What would be a time period for domestication? If the POD was a genetic tamer nature then domestication could be earlier then 1000AD. Places such as Adena and Hopewell in the East US could survive perhaps?
 
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bison were present before the ocean closed the islands off after/before
(whichever) the last ice age.

also, bison are just as domesticatable as oxen. we have them semi-domesticated now. the fact is, anthropologists are still baffled by how mankind domesticated cattle from ox and buffalo to begin with
 
With animal domestication you have disease. So we could see a mutual transfer between the Indians and the Europeans in terms of disease. That would make for some real interesting butterflies.
 
If you look at Pack Animals the world over (not counting dogs), North America (and Autralia) are the only area to not develop them.
 
also, bison are just as domesticatable as oxen. we have them semi-domesticated now. the fact is, anthropologists are still baffled by how mankind domesticated cattle from ox and buffalo to begin with

We had debates about the domesticability of bison in the original version of my Mississippi Rice TL. Most people followed the Diamond line that bison are undomesticable, but a lot of OTL references seemed to indicate that were already on their way to being semi-domesticated. So I cut them out of the second version of the TL, but I always wondered...

Though with a biological PoD this doesn't matter.
 
Therefore I support a Domesticated Bison TL

I would totally write one but my knowledge of anthropology and animal husbandry and it's effect on culture is limited. And besides I have my America Eterna TL to work on.
 
I would totally write one but my knowledge of anthropology and animal husbandry and it's effect on culture is limited. And besides I have my America Eterna TL to work on.

Same here...I have Riding the Blue Heaven, Land of Mesas, Vive le Canada, Land of Salmon and Totems, Ming of the West, Empires Rise and Fall, Unliving Death, Heart of Mesoamerica, Arian Axum and still several more. Tooo much on my plate. So I elect at the moment to help out anyone interested.
 
Same here...I have Riding the Blue Heaven, Land of Mesas, Vive le Canada, Land of Salmon and Totems, Ming of the West, Empires Rise and Fall, Unliving Death, Heart of Mesoamerica, Arian Axum and still several more. Tooo much on my plate. So I elect at the moment to help out anyone interested.

dude, i can barely manage my one---merciless plug: BARBARIA: A WORLD WITHOUT ROME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

but seriously, wow, how do you do that?
 
dude, i can barely manage my one---merciless plug: BARBARIA: A WORLD WITHOUT ROME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:D

but seriously, wow, how do you do that?

I have either Spontaneous Awesome Idea affliction or a Overactive Muse of Ideas. As soon as I think of one thing and go with it I think of another awesome idea for TL and go with that the another and another untill my attention span drops and I go back to a previous TL and revive it (the majority of those I started in a span of one month).

Though would the domestication of Bison lead to Stable and Expansive socities in North America and lead to a Higher Tech development?
 
I have either Spontaneous Awesome Idea affliction or a Overactive Muse of Ideas. As soon as I think of one thing and go with it I think of another awesome idea for TL and go with that the another and another untill my attention span drops and I go back to a previous TL and revive it (the majority of those I started in a span of one month).

Though would the domestication of Bison lead to Stable and Expansive socities in North America and lead to a Higher Tech development?

Well North America's lack of major domesticable crops is worrisome. Corn and potatoes are not enough.
 
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