Buffalo wasn't just for dinner for the Plains Indians.

It's what killed dinner, cooked dinner and served dinner.

The buffalo was, in effect, a one-stop shop that housed, clothed, fed and supported the Plains Indians' nomadic lifestyle, said Alex Rose, a guide at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center.

"The buffalo followed the fresh grass, and the Indians followed the buffalo," Rose said. "That was their nomadic culture."

Rose will present "Of Man and Beast: Native Americans and Buffalo" at a free, public event at the center at 1 p.m. Sunday.

For his presentation, he uses reproductions of objects from buffalo crafted by Sioux-culture expert Larry Belitz of Hot Springs, S.D. Belitz's work can be seen in the Kevin Costner movie "Dances With Wolves," for which he made tipis, weapons, blankets, robes and cooking utensils for an entire Lakota village, Rose said.

The buffalo, technically the American bison, ranged across North America from Oregon to the Carolinas, and Canada to Mexico, Rose said.

The great beast's contributions included the humble, innocuous buffalo chip.

"This is a worthless object to you and I," Rose said. But the dried dung is loaded with compressed grass, and burns like the fuel in a pellet stove.

The fuel source was critical for life on the prairie because of the lack of trees, Rose said.

It also could be ground and used as baby powder, he added.

The animal itself offered far more treasures, but it needed to be killed first.

Until the 1500s, Indians hunted buffalo either by spears or by pushing them over cliffs, Rose said. Evidence of both methods dating back 10,000 years is found throughout Wyoming.

When Spanish explorers came to the New World, some of their horses were captured by the Indians, who then had a powerful means of transportation and hunting.

Indians used approximately 3-foot-long bows made of hickory or ash, and strung them with sinew. The short, 55-pound bows gave horse riders flexibility, Rose said.

They would ride alongside the buffalo and shoot from a distance of eight to 10 feet, he said.

The arrows were marked near the fletching with a color to identify who was responsible for the kill, Rose said.

They processed the buffalo by removing the hide and using a fleshing tool to remove the fat and meat, he said.

Rose held up a buffalo stomach that Indians would have used for a bucket to haul water or to cook food.

He then blew air into a collapsed translucent bag - a bladder - and displayed a canteen. "It will expand like a balloon."

The hides were tanned for tipi covers and robes, he said.

They also could be allowed to harden for shields, utensils or moccasin soles; or they could be softened with heated buffalo brains that created an oily solution that was massaged into the hide for clothing, Rose said.

So while wearing clothing made of buffalo, Indians would build a fire with buffalo chips, stuff buffalo meat into a buffalo stomach for dinner, scoop the meal with a spoon made from buffalo horn, and serve it on a plate made of a hardened piece of hide, he said.

This way of life came to an end starting in the 1870s and 1880s, Rose said.

Former president and conservationist Theodore Roosevelt said, "Never before in all history were so many large wild animals of one species slain in so short a space of time."

Millions of buffalo were killed - fetching hunters $2 a hide - to meet the largely European demand for hides, Rose said.

Others were killed for sport.

And there's some indication that the slaughter of the buffalo was done to undermine the Plains Indians' way of life, Rose said.

The slaughter, nearly to extinction, probably did more to end the Indian Wars than military actions, he said.

Regardless of the motive, the effect devastated the American Indian, Rose said. "Their culture was destroyed."

If you go: Alex Rose will present "Of Man and Beast: Native Americans and Buffalo" at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center, 1501 N. Poplar St., at 1 p.m. Sunday. The event is free and open to the public.

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at tom.morton@trib.com. Read his blog at tribtown.trib.com/TomMorton/blog.