The bison is one thing Washington politicians can agree on

There are few things that politicians can agree on these days.

Partisan politics run rampant in the halls of the divided Congress and the president's lame-duck last year in office has produced little in the way of bipartisan legislation. Party infighting has made this a very divisive presidential election season.

The chasm is wide when it comes to party ideology, but there is one cause that both Republicans and Democrats have been able to unite and rally behind. Last week both the House and Senate approved a bill that designates the bison as the national mammal.

Their imposing physical strength and the thousands of years of history logged on this continent make the bison an obvious choice. Now we can credit this behemoth animal - the largest living land mammal in North America - for head-butting Washington politicians into a consensus.

Buffalo is just a nickname given to them by the early explorers and settlers. Bison live only in North America while the two main buffalo species reside in Africa and Asia.

Native Americans considered the "Brother Buffalo" to be sacred as it provided them with life's necessities - food, shelter and clothing. They wasted nothing. Use of the hide and meat are well-known but bison bones, rawhide and other parts were also used for making ceremonial items, drums, tools, weapons and decorations.

In the movie "Dances with Wolves," Kevin Costner leads a tribe of Lakota Indians on a hunt for tutanka, their word for buffalo. One dramatic scene shows Costner and the tribe he befriended gazing in sorrow at the carcasses left on the plains by American hunters who slaughtered the animals just for their hides and tongues. It's a devastating indictment on the sins of American greed and waste during the western expansionism into Indian territory.

During the 1700s, it's estimated there were 40 million to 60 million bison roaming North America. By 1895, thanks to the mass slaughter by white bounty hunters, that number was reduced to only 800 buffalo.

While the great majority of bison roamed the Plains, some could be found in the East, even in Pennsylvania. The last wild bison in Pennsylvania was killed in the late 1700s.

Thankfully, the animal has made some recovery. Today there are over 350,000 bison in North America.

Bison are about 6 feet tall and can weigh as much as a ton. They might look big and slow but they are as quick and agile as most horses. They can jump a 6-foot fence, are good swimmers and can run up to 40 mph, which is faster than a wolf.

Well over 100 places in the country have the word Buffalo in their name, but only a handful adopted the name Bison. Schools such as Bucknell University in Lewisburg; Howard University in Washington, D.C.; and North Dakota State showed wisdom in their formative years by making the bison their school mascot.

Now it's now up to the president to sign the legislation to give the bison the place of recognition it deserves, allowing it to stand proud with the bald eagle, our nation's official bird.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com