Where did the term “buffaloing” originate?

In a local newspaper article, True West Executive Editor Bob Boze Bell explained “buffalo” meant hitting a man over the head with a pistol. Where did that term originate?   Allen Fossenkemper Fountain Hills, Arizona “Buffalo” or “buffaloing” dates back to at least the 1870s. It meant to be confused, cheated, intimidated or frightened—usually by bluffing or cowing. But, as you note, it also came to refer to bashing someone’s skull with a gun in order to subdue him. Author S