What was the destruction of the buffalo

The Indians used the buffalo for survival and respectfully hunted them for food and other means to survive. But it was the white settlers who really brought the buffalo to near extinction. The white settlers used the buffalo for many things that brought them wealth and supplies, like industrial machine belts, and clothing such as robes, and rugs. In a way there was nothing wrong with that, but there is rumor that the government ordered the mass killing of buffalo to cut the supply off from Indians and run the Indians away from the land.

From here the mass killings of buffalo began. Not only were they being used for industrial reasons, but now they were being shot by the thousands a day just for sport and selfless reasons. Our history speaks through this event of The Destruction of the Buffalo in many ways.

Not only did the human race use the buffalos as if they were an endless source, but they were also slaughtered to cut and run off another human kind Indians. We need to learn from our past and respect what has been given to us to survive here on Earth.

Destruction of Buffalo. Search this site. National Implications. Years ago Native Americans discovered what they believed was a gold mine. They noticed a herd of 30 to 60 million Buffalo's roaming the plains. The Native Americans hunted the buffalo so they can maintain an accurate amount of food. By the 's the Native Americans tamed some of the buffalo, which made hunting easier. The Native Americans moved with the herds so they can have a good supply of food.

The Native people used different methods of hunting. One method use is called the Dog Soldier. A group of Native people who are called this, push some of the herd over a cliff so some of the animals would die. During winter they would chance the larger animals onto frozen lakes and slaughter them. The ice made it difficult for the buffalo to run. Warriors did the killing. The woman were responsible for getting the meat. The rest of the buffalo was used for clothing, shelter and weapons.

Native American knew that their survival depended on the buffalo. Following the Civil War, after deadly European diseases and hundreds of wars with the white man had already wiped out untold numbers of Native Americans, the U. But as the Gold Rush, the pressures of Manifest Destiny , and land grants for railroad construction led to greater expansion in the West, the majority of these treaties were broken. In , he wrote to Gen. Ulysses S.

On the ground in the West, Gen. The consequence was that every engagement was a forlorn hope. As the railways expanded, they allowed the rapid transport of troops and supplies to areas where battles were being waged.

Sheridan was soon able to mount the kind of offensive he desired. Custer later reported more than Indian deaths, including that of Chief Black Kettle and his wife, Medicine Woman Later, shot in the back as they attempted to ride away on a pony.

Philip Sheridan photographed by Matthew Brady. Photo: Library of Congress. In the midth century, it was estimated that 30 milion to 60 million buffalo roamed the plains. In mid-century, trappers who had depleted the beaver populations of the Midwest began trading in buffalo robes and tongues; an estimated , buffalo were killed annually. Native tribes followed the herds and only killed what they needed. Since the Buffalo were sacred and life-givers, the people carefully maintained a balance, never overkilling for sport—only for sustenance.

Here, Buffalo were plentiful, and the tribes thrived. However, the discovery of gold in the West brought white settlers who flooded the Plains, outnumbering the Natives nearly 3 to 1. The complexities of Western Expansion meant the Buffalo and the Indians would no longer have free reign over the Territory's grasslands.

From this point through the Battle of Little Bighorn and beyond, conflicts between the U. Cavalry and Native tribes were numerous and tragic—the Indian Wars were underway. During these conflicts, Native Americans continued to outwit and outlast the U. Cavalry with their tactics, which kept the Cavalry from delivering a final blow to the "hostiles. With its completion, the U. Cavalry could move its men and equipment deeper into Indian Territory to assist in wrangling the Lakota Sioux and other tribes onto reservations.

Generals William T. Sherman and Philip Sheridan believed if the soldiers could eradicate the Buffalo, the Indians would have no choice but to give up. This belief stemmed from General Sherman's tactic during the Civil War to defeat the Confederates in his March to the Sea—the "scorched earth" policy.

Take away anything essential for the survival of a people, and they will surrender—as long as the Buffalo roamed the Plains, so did the Indians—the two were symbiotic. Soon, it became the norm for Sherman and Sheridan to provide opportunities for the rich and influential to travel West and hunt Buffalo with U.

Cavalry guns alongside prominent generals like General William F. This was not the work of the Army. It was private industry.

Isenberg, the author of The Destruction of the Bison , and a professor of history at Temple University. Isenberg says though it was never official policy to kill buffalo in order to control Native Americans on the plains, the Army was certainly conscious about it. Herds became harder to find. The buffalo runners sent two men to Fort Dodge, Kansas, to ask the colonel there what the penalty was if the skinners crossed into the Texas Panhandle and onto reservation land.

In the next decade, the hide hunters exterminated nearly every buffalo. The air was foul with a sickening stench, and the vast plain which only a short twelve months before teemed with animal life, was a dead, solitary desert. The wasteland was so scattered with the bones of dead animals and buffalos that all the prairie felt like a graveyard risen. During a hard drought, with no buffalo left, settlers and Native Americans hunted their bones, selling them for fertilizer.

We were never able to control the savages until their supply of meat was cut off. Some men saw the future. And even before the buffalo runners had wiped out almost every animal and the U. It did not sit well with Sheridan. Congress passed the bill to protect buffalo in , but President Grant refused to sign it. Without buffalo, the U. When the Oglala Lakota in the north mounted horses and killed the cows in ritual as they had the buffalo on their prairie hunts, the government stopped sending live cows and instead shipped meat from a nearby slaughterhouse.

The Oglala Lakota burned the slaughterhouse down.