Ted Steinberg Buffalo

The buffalo were evidently everything to the Native Americans, hereby causing the defeat of buffalo to fall hand in hand with theirs. The plains Indians used bison as not only food, but in religious rituals, for clothing, for hunting, for shelter, and more. The buffalo were an integral part of the native’s lives. In the aftermath of the increasing killings of bison, the lives of countless Native Americans were destroyed. The said 30-60 million buffalo which had roamed freely upon the Great

Turner’s Frontier Thesis reflects the slaughter of the American Buffalo because, the thesis stresses that American democracy was formed by the American frontier, and the killing of the buffalo comes into place because the indians occupied the west and raised herds of buffalo, which at first americans killed the buffalo thinking it would force the indians to move out of the lands and become americanized civilians because they would not have any food and would have to beg the americans and basically become dependent, they also killed the buffalo because once railroads began to expand it became hazardous, americans also sold hides from buffalos in a profitable industry, all this made america a stronger country together because everyone came together to move the indians out, it

There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough

In Document 4 of Westward Expansion, J.G. Bruff says, “Counted 150 dead oxen. It is difficult to find a camping ground without carcasses.” Dang, bad right, in all of the expansion that the U.S. was doing, the land that we were taking was taking the blow of our greed. People kill great animals for sport, not even eating them and just leaving them to rot. We destroyed our land in search of gold, and in this search many never found gold.

With the finalization of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 had drove civilization westward. The towns and rail lines that build up around them cut incisions though the uncorrupted grazing lands of the buffalo and bison. Buffalo were slaughtered on a broad scale for their highly value hides. Two decades later, the buffalo had nearly been pushed to extinction. By the time Roosevelt wrote about them in 1893, less than 500 native buffalo remain and no herd of more than 100 had been seen since

Upon entering what is known as South Dakota, the men encountered abundant numbers of Buffalo. "During the course of their

As Dr. Higley wrote the poem that became “Home on the Range,” the American industrial frontier simultaneously began to render the roaming buffalo extinct. At the same time, Americans depleted and exploited other native animals and natural lands, turning nature into capital and paving the way for the American industrial frontier. The depletion of America’s

In the 1890s, Buffalo’s became an extinct animal as they were hunted and slaughtered by the American Indians and the Europeans. Their numbers began to rapidly decrease, and soon enough, less than 2,000 remained. How did it get this way? The American Indians used bison as their livlihood, they not only use bison for meat, but they were very careful about using every piece of the Bison they hunted. In an article entitled “A Brief History of Bison” the “Bison Basics” author creates a chart listing the parts of a bison used by the Indians. (below)

“The primary cause of the buffalo's extermination, and the one which embraced all others was the descent of civilization, with all its elements of destructiveness, upon the whole of the country inhabited by that animal" (Hornaday). William Temple Hornaday was a hunter, taxidermist, zoologist, and was a pioneer of the American conservation movement. His book entitled The Extermination of the American Bison, conveys the history and destruction of the bison. It has become a landmark work in early conservation advocacy (Hornaday). For most of the 1800s, the American Bison was almost limitless in number. Approximately 50 million roamed the western ranges prior to European settlement ("A Brief History Of Buffalo in North America | Bison Basics”). With the disappearance of the western frontier, American Bison soon became in danger of becoming

The glorification of the buffalo made sense when buffaloes were abundant in numbers and the Native Americans were free to follow their trail, but following the killing of thousands by Buffalo Bill and others, and the confinement to reservations, hunting and other economic, ritualized practices were damaged irreversibly, leaving the Natives short of means to gather food, hide and

The main part of the buffalo people wanted was the buffalo tongue which became the sole purpose of their slaughter. Over several years, the buffalo population of the West went from millions to a few hundred solely left in Yellowstone. After Edgar Howell, was discovered poaching the last wild buffalos left in Yellowstone there was a call-to-action according to PBS. Finally, in 1894 President Cleveland would sign the "Act to Protect the Birds and Animals in Yellowstone National Park” (Episode 2, Page 2). The massacre of the Wild Buffalo however, last through the 1800s before there was true modern education and environmental

Buffalo symbolized a source of food, tools, and spirituality. Therefore, they were one of the animals that dominated the plains. The Indians believed in living in harmony with nature and each other. However, the white Americans were not compatible with the Native Americans (Goldfield 544). “With the expansion of the European colonizers into their lands, however, Indians confronted an expansionistic-minded people who typically not only loathed cultural diversity but also sought to force Indians to conform with European laws, customs, and beliefs,” ("U.S. Colonization of Indian Justice Systems: A Brief History.").

The Native Americans would offer the Europeans almost everything they had, which included fish and turkey to bread and the companionship of the chief’s daughter. The Europeans mistook the Native American’s generosity as evidence they were childlike. The old land in Columbus’ time was luscious and full of many different types of wildlife. Today that land is used and farmed down to provide food and tools for the Americans living here in the United States. “The land they left is different now. The white pines that towered over New England became masts for the Royal Navy's sailing ships. The redwoods that stretched from the Rockies to the Pacific exist in pockets smaller than the Indians' shrunken reservations. The hours long thunder of bison hooves no longer shakes Kansas or Nebraska, where only a few stretches of grassland remain on the prairie (pg. 6 Lord,

Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in

When people heard about the West, they tried to go to that place and found that there had enormous buffalo population. Then, they wanted to dominate the West, and threw the Indians out of there. The white people put tax on water and air which no one did that before. That led to the conflict with the people who came and bought land to make their farm. The news of buffalo was more and more spread out to the East. As the result, a lot of people from the East took a train to go there just to kill buffalo for meat, and the settlers also bring abundant tools to kill buffalo. At that moment, the gun company thought that they could get money if they made a buffalo gun, and they made it. The more white people came to the West, the more buffalo were