Ted Steinberg Buffalo

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

“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 buffalo would supply the Indians with their necessities for living including resources for thread, clothes, food and shelter. The buffalo was also used for trading things more valuable. An important action that undermined the Plains Indian culture was the large killing of buffalo in a short period of time. Army commanders who worked in the north west often tried to deprive the Indians of their main source of survival by killing the buffalo as a way to drive them of their land. As the population of buffalo dwindled, the Plains Indians had no means of independent support or nourishment and were forced to accept the US government’s policy of living on Indian reservations. The killing of buffalo was supported by the US military in order to undermine the survival of the Indians, and up to 250 buffalo were killed each

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,

The Native Americans only hunt and kill the buffalo they need, and they use all parts of the buffalo, as compared to the mass murder of buffalo for only their hides by white poachers. The Sioux call white people “a people without value, or without a soul or without without understanding Sioux rights.” Which is brought to life through the heart wrenching scene of the baby buffalo crying over its’ mother’s corpse.

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

The killings of Buffalo in Yellowstone National Park has been happening more over a decade, but longer since the arrival of Americans in 1492 but in 1491 before the settlers and colonization,

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

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 spite of the Native Americans, Bison were hunted near extinction in the 19th century. Stats show that bison population decreases in the late 1880s. They were hunted for fur, with the rest of the animal left behind to decay in the ground. After they rotted their bones were found packaged and shipped East. Main purpose the U.S. military hunted buffalo was to deprive Native Americans of food because that was what they lived off of, also to clear the great plains and make space for railroads. In 2005 hunting buffalo became illegal, U.S. Senate offered each states American tribes two hunters license each however if citizens are caught hunting Bison a reduced fee will be paid. Female buffalo are around five feet tall and weigh between 800-1000

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

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

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)

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