Paralleling the other hardships that the Native Americans faced, starting around 1860, the American Buffalo began to be slaughtered. As the railroads stretched towards the west, the buffalo were forced to move and before to long, around 1871, a tannery in Pennsylvania discovered how valuable and durable buffalo leather was. This is when the massacre escalated. During the time from 1872-74, over 3 million buffalo were killed.
This was incredibly devastating to the Indians because the American Buffalo was one of their largest resources. The Native Americans used everything from the bones of the animal as needles, to the meat, which was obviously used as a food source.
Until 1883, the buffalo massacre continued. Hunters bragged about killing 100 buffalo a day. The main problem was that the hunters wasted the majority of their kill. the hide, tongue, hump, and tallow were harvested from the dead animals while the rest was left to rot. This was yet another devastating blow to the Indian societies who relied on all parts of the buffalo to survive.
There were so few buffalo left that when crafting the buffalo nickel, the artist was forced to go to a New York Zoo to view the animal used for the coin.
(SEE PICTURE AT LINK BELOW)
http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/IMAGES/Kansas/bison_masterclipweb.jpg
Other Sources:
http://www.bluecloud.org/11.html
Text book (Ch. 17, pages 335-336)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I simply find this interesting because in Sydney's piece they refer to the Indians as being uncivilized but when I read this I kind of think of them as being uncivilized. I just don't understand why someone could find it necessary to take away something that is essential to the survival of another human being. All these actions that have been done to the Indians are simply acts of cruelty and I just don't get how the whites could not feel any remorse for their actions.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is horrible that so many buffalo were killed. I think the way that the indians used every part of the buffalo was extremely resourceful. I think this relates to how much more the indians knew about the environment. They spent hundreds of years living in nature, now we have become so dependant on factory made things and technology.
ReplyDelete