It is true that various Plains Indians would occasionally chase buffalo over a small cliff, but Miller probably never saw this scene and therefore exaggerated it a bit.  The Indians, when they found a suitable bluff, would conceal themselves behind the rocks with hides.  When the herd would start to move towards the bluff, the Indians would jump up from behind their rocks, shouting and waving the hides, keeping the buffalo moving toward the cliff.  In later versions of this picture, Miller exaggerated the cliff even more.  Had the Indians driven buffalo over such precipices, the meat would have been too badly smashed to eat and the bones would have been broken.
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Alfred_Jacob_Miller" class="extiw" title="w:en:Alfred Jacob Miller"><span title="American painter (1810-1874)">Alfred Jacob Miller</span></a>
</bdi>
between 1858 and 1860 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1850-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1858-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1860-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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