07/30/2024 | Ren Lashley, Museum Day Camp Educator at The Museum of the Grand Prairie

Bison are exclusively herbivorous, and their waste, called “buffalo chips” and “meadow muffins,” were burned by Indigenous Americans and later European settlers as fuel. When dried in the sun for a few weeks, buffalo chips burned fast, hot, and odorless, leaving coals behind that were an excellent source of heat when wood stores were low. Settlers learned this practice from local Indigenous populations, who had burned buffalo chips for centuries before European arrival. Buffalo chips were occasionally burned as insect repellent or in religious ceremonies. 

European women were slow to accept this alternative fuel source and were reluctant to allow excrement to cook their food. Accustomed to burning wood and coal in their home countries, the idea of burning animal waste seemed dirty and unrefined. Their husbands frequently tasked them with gathering the patties from the fields, an issue addressed in the Mormon Trail song "Whoa! Ha! Buck and Jerry Boy." The lyrics read: “Look at her now with a pout on her lips/As daintily with her finger tips/She picks for the fire some buffalo chips.” Settler women slowly adapted to their unfamiliar environment, switching to burning cow patties as the bison population was hunted to near extinction. 

The Museum of the Grand Prairie is home to a few buffalo chips collected from modern bison! These chips have been preserved in resin to prevent deterioration and keep the chips from smelling. They can be handled easily and are commonly used during our Youth Programs to demonstrate how Indigenous hunters utilized all the parts of the animals they hunted. Check out what programs we offer here! 

Image Source: Kansas Historical Society