Historically, the Great Plains were the range of the bison and of the Great Plains culture of the Native American tribes of the Blackfeet, Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, and others. These tribes' culture very way of life revolved around the American Bison (or buffalo), which explains the common denomination Buffalo culture. The buffalos roamed the western plains of the American mainland for tens of thousands of years numbering in their millions until the coming of white hunters to the Great Plains, and thus were omnipresent in the natives' lives. The Indians used every part of the buffalo, hides, bones, internal organs and some tribes attributed god-like status to the coming of the buffalo.

In the 1870s the U.S. Government acting through the army began a deliberate campaign of buffalo extermination in an attempt to cripple the tribes and force them into trading posts where they could be rounded up and moved to reservations. The slaughter has gone down in history as being one of wanton destruction to suit political mores of the day. It was President Roosevelt in the early 20th century who acted decisively to save the remnants of the buffalo, thought to number around 200. The buffalo were moved to Yellowstone National Park and to a certain extent have recovered from the abuse of man, but it is unlikely that they will ever be as numerous as before.

The tribes of the Great Plains have been found [1] to be the tallest people in the world during the late 1800s, based on 21st century analysis of data collected by Franz Boas for the World Columbian Exposition. This information is significant to anthropometric historians, who usually equate the height of populations with their overall health and standard of living.