Smith-McMillan DAR presented program on bison

By News Staff on Tuesday, January 30, 2024
  • Guest speaker at the Smith-McMillan Chapter, DAR meeting was Suzanne Morriss-Batchelder (left). Her topic was “Our National Mammal: The American Bison.” On the table are her Indian artifacts and visible through the windows in the photo above are the herd of bison which she and her husband own.
    Guest speaker at the Smith-McMillan Chapter, DAR meeting was Suzanne Morriss-Batchelder (left). Her topic was “Our National Mammal: The American Bison.” On the table are her Indian artifacts and visible through the windows in the photo above are the herd of bison which she and her husband own.
  • Smith-McMillan DAR presented program on bison
    Smith-McMillan DAR presented program on bison

    Suzanne Morriss-Batchelder, a member of the Smith-McMillan Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, presented a program entitled, “Our National Mammal: The American Bison,” at the chapter’s monthly meeting on Jan. 20.

    Guests were served a bison chili entree with sides, bisonshaped gingerbread cookies and other treats. It was a timely and informative program since the bison has become the National Mammal of the United States.

    In her presentation, Morriss-Batchelder said it is estimated that as many as 40 million bison ranged across the North American prairies prior to the arrival of Europeans. The Euro-American buffalo robe trade, which began in 1810, instigated a killing spree which brought the number down to a few thousand by 1889, when William Hornaday (who was to become director of the Bronx Zoo) published “The Extermination of the American Bison.”