No, it was not. The bison population collapse was not something expected or planned. One year the bison simply disappeared (1882).
The bison ecosystem in North America was deeply unnatural. Bison are fast-replicating herbivores that don't have any natural predators! This only happened because Natives exterminated almost all the large predators.
Such systems almost always go through boom-bust cycles, and that's exactly what happened. The migration patterns were disturbed by railroads, and that likely led to the spread of the Texas tick fever and anthrax among the bison population. They have around 90% death rate, and that's what caused the population collapse.
However, this time the population did not recover by itself.
> But if you can eliminate a major source of food for them, it's possibly even more effective.
It's the same nonsense as giving smallpox-impregnated blankets used to exterminate populations.