science

Now That the Buffalo's Gone

Now That the Buffalo's Gone is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Now That the Buffalo's Gone rather than just read about it. In short: "Now That the Buffalo's Gone" is the first song from the 1964 album It's My Way! by singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. The song's title refers to the near-extinction of the American bison and serves as a metaphor for the cultural genocide inflicted by Europeans.

Key takeaways

Now That the Buffalo's Gone belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Now That the Buffalo's Gone to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Now That the Buffalo's Gone from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"Now That the Buffalo's Gone" is the first song from the 1964 album It's My Way! by singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. The song's title refers to the near-extinction of the American bison and serves as a metaphor for the cultural genocide inflicted by Europeans. A classic folk protest song, "Now That the Buffalo's Gone" has a simple arrangement with guitar and vocals by Sainte-Marie and bass played by Art Davis. The song is a lament that addresses the continuous confiscation of Indian lands. In the song, Sainte-Marie contrasts the treatment of post-war Germany, whose people were allowed to keep their land and their dignity, to that of the North American Indians. As a contemporary example, Sainte-Marie mentions how the Treaty of Canandaigua was broken through the building of the Kinzua Dam. She refers to the dam again in her 1966 song "My Country ‘Tis of Thy People You’re Dying." While her original lyrics claimed that George Washington signed the treaty, it was actually his agent, Timothy Pickering who signed. Sainte-Marie later changed the lyrics to refer to a "treaty forever your senators sign." The song describes ongoing governmental attempts to wrest land from the Cheyenne, Iroquois and Seneca. Sainte-Marie recorded the song again for her 1968 album I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again, updating the lyrics from "that of the Seneca and the Cheyenne" to "that of the Chippewa and the Cheyenne" and again for the 1996 album Up Where We Belong with the lyrics "the government now wants the Navajo land, that of the Inuit and the Cheyenne." The 1996 version removed any mention of the Kinzua Dam, a change that was explained by Sainte-Marie on her website "This song was on my first album and I'd have thought it would be obsolete by now. But governments are still breaking promises and stealing indigenous lands, and I still believe that informed people can help make things better." Sainte-Marie allowed historian Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. to use the song's title for his 1984 book of the same name. At the 2022 Sainte-Marie tribute show Buffy Sainte-Marie: Starwalker, the song was performed by singer-songwriter William Prince with the surviving members of The Tragically Hip. Buffy’s first song demonstrates her connection to her alleged culture. Her claims of being Indigenous have recently been disproven.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Now That the Buffalo's Gone

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Now That the Buffalo's Gone claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Now That the Buffalo's Gone before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Now That the Buffalo's Gone ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Now That the Buffalo's Gone

In research: Now That the Buffalo's Gone appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Now That the Buffalo's Gone in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Now That the Buffalo's Gone is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1964 songs, Buffy Sainte-Marie songs, Songs about Native Americans, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Now That the Buffalo's Gone outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Now That the Buffalo's Gone” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Now That the Buffalo's Gone in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Now That the Buffalo's Gone means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Now That the Buffalo's Gone out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Now That the Buffalo's Gone in simple terms?

Why does Now That the Buffalo's Gone matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Now That the Buffalo's Gone?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Now That the Buffalo's Gone.