It was never done for a steak. A buffalo provides enough protein for a family of four or five for a few months. Mostly dry meat.

In Alberta is Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump.

Hunters work hard to find food. In the old days, before rifles, there had to be ways that didn't involve personal risk in the pursuit of food. People found those ways. Meat didn't magically appear in a Safeway, wrapped and ready to cook. I don't know how many of you ever faced a charging 800 pound cow or 1000 pound bull, but fucking trust me, it's easy to shit yerself when you think it may not swerve.

No offence meant to anyone, but many of the remarks on this thread come from some romanticized notion of Indian people. They are no different than any other people. No more conservative, no more conservationist, no more altruistic. We are humans, and despite that our hunter/gatherer methodologies have changed in history, they have also remained the same, much as have we.

I prefer dry meat from moose, made by a certain family in north Alberta. However, I ate 'rat a few times when I was hungry. In my younger years I trapped it to sell the skins, but when my stomach spoke, and I had to listen, I ate the carcass I used to sell to mink farmers. It wasn't great, but it was better than an empty belly. Remember that phrase, 'an empty belly', because it drives more necessities than all the talk on this thread. Again, no offence.