James “Scotty” Philip

The Man Whose Wife Saved the Buffalo

Born in Morayshire on the rocky northern coast of Scotland, James Philip left his homeland at age 15, seeking adventure and wealth in America’s Wild West.  The year was 1874 and the young Scot had heard fabulous tales of the American frontier.  He joined his older brother George in Kansas, but discovered that laborious farm work lacked all the glorious aspects of fiction.  After trying and failing to find his fortune mining gold in the Black Hills, “Scotty” took up hauling freight for the U.S. Army out of Fort Laramie and Fort Robinson.  He saved up enough money to start his own herd of cattle on ranch land near Fort Robinson, and in 1879 he married Sarah Laribee.

Sarah’s father was a French trapper-turned-rancher, and her mother was Lakota.  Scotty had been interested in Indian culture since he was a boy, and this was no doubt an important aspect of their relationship.  They soon moved onto the Great Sioux Indian Reservation where Scotty became a successful rancher, integrating into the community with the help of his wife.

Before his marriage to Sarah, Scotty had tried and failed to corral a herd of bison on the Grand River in Dakota Territory.  His love of Indian culture extended into an interest in the buffalo, and his wife encouraged him to foster the surviving bison herd held by their neighbors, the Dupree family.  Pete Dupree’s wife, Mary Good Elk Woman Dupree, had given her husband and sons the mission of saving some buffalo calves in the early 1880s, as the men were involved in hunting out  some of the last remaining bison on the prarie.  Five calves were brought back to the Dupree’s ranch, and had grown to number over eighty by the time of Pete Dupree’s death.

James “Scotty” Philip

No doubt with his wife Sarah’s encouragement, Scotty Philip purchased the herd and brought it to his ranch.  Eventually elected to the state legislature, Scotty gained access to more land for the bison along the Missouri river, where the herd grew to number nearly 1,000 by the time of Philip’s death.