num_pages: 334
description: James "Scotty" Philip came to America from his native Scotland in 1874 when he was 16. At 17, he was in the Black Hills illegally, looking for gold. Twice he was escorted out by the army. He returned in the big rush of 1876 but he found no gold. Then began a series of adventures as a teamster, cowboy, rancher, and freighter. He was scout for the army at Ft. Robinson during the Dull Knife outbreak. He married the daughter of a Sioux woman and a French voyageur whose Sioux blood gave her land right on the new Pine Ridge Reservation where Scotty moved his family and where he built a cattle empire. He was called back as army scout during the Ghost Dance craze that ended in the battle of Wounded Knee. He built a town by lost the fight for the county seat. Later he was elected to the South Dakota Senate.Seeing the vanishing buffalo and deploring the loss, he salvaged Pete Dupree's herd of buffalo when it appeared doomed. Building a buffalo-tight fence around thousands of leased acres near Fort Pierre, he allowed his buffalo herd to crow until he had nearly a thousand head when he died. He sold or gave many of his buffalo to National Parks, state parks and reserves, and after his death many more were distributed to areas where they would be protected. Most of the buffalo east of the Rockies today are descendants of Scotty's herd. He and Ed Lemmon were the first two men from South Dakota to be inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.
language: English
title: Scotty Philip, the man who saved the buffalo,
titlecomplete: Scotty Philip, the man who saved the buffalo,
ratings_count: 8
publisher: Caxton