In “The Buffalo Skinners”, the poem explores cowboy culture and identity through the harsh realities of their lives. The poem reflects how the hardships of working on the buffalo range shape the identity of the individuals who are there to endure it, forging a bond like no other among them which puts them aside as a community, further defining their cowboy culture. This is portrayed in the poem through the metaphor “Our hearts were cased with buffalo hocks; our souls were cased with steel” which emphasized that the individuals that were portrayed throughout the poem have become resilient. It…