In 1905, to preserve the country's remaining stocks, a group of well-to-do East Coasters, including Theodore Roosevelt, Andrew Carnegie and Frederic Remington, set up the American Bison Society (buffalo and bison being one and the same).

ECONOMIST: Buffalo in America

At least two such co-operatives, Dakota Growers Pasta Co. and the North American Bison Co-op, are doing well elsewhere in North Dakota.

ECONOMIST: Can the rules be bent just enough to keep them alive?

We took a tour of the Hall of North American Mammals, stopping to admire Wilson's work at the American Bison and Pronghorn Antelope diorama.

WSJ: Urban Gardner: Three Arts of Dioramas at the Museum of Natural History

What amazes him, Myers says, is that a species that may have once outnumbered the American bison population at its height could fall so far so fast.

NPR: Study: Whitetip Shark Numbers Rapidly Dwindled

Three symbols of Native America--the bison, the eagle and the Native American people themselves--have been endangered in recent decades.

NPR: Native American Symbols: Eagle, Bison Reclaimed