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I heard last night that around mid-19th century, there were 30 million buffalo roaming the U.S. – most, if not all, in the Great Plains. By around the mid-1880s, there were about 86 buffalo left total. Amazing!
The federal government promoted bison hunting for various reasons :- to allow ranchers to range their cattle without competition from other bovines, and primarily - to weaken the North American Indian population by removing their main food source and to pressure them onto the reservations. Without the bison, native people of the plains were forced to leave the land or starve to death.Native Americans also contributed to the collapse of the bison :- firearms and horses, along with a growing export market for buffalo robes and bison meat had resulted in larger and larger numbers of bison killed each yearThe main reason was commercial hunting (Buffalo Bill Cody) :- Bison skins were used for industrial machine belts, clothing such as robes, and rugs. There was a huge export trade to Europe of bison hides.
The federal government promoted bison hunting for various reasons :- to allow ranchers to range their cattle without competition from other bovines, and primarily - to weaken the North American Indian population by removing their main food source and to pressure them onto the reservations. Without the bison, native people of the plains were forced to leave the land or starve to death.Native Americans also contributed to the collapse of the bison :- firearms and horses, along with a growing export market for buffalo robes and bison meat had resulted in larger and larger numbers of bison killed each yearThe main reason was commercial hunting (Buffalo Bill Cody) :- Bison skins were used for industrial machine belts, clothing such as robes, and rugs. There was a huge export trade to Europe of bison hides.
I must ask where you got your information from. I can understand the commercial expansion of the United States which led to a high demand for products from buffalo hides. But I question the assertion that the hunting was done specifically to "weaken the North American Indian population". Yes, that resulted from the hunting, and the Indian population was probably disregarded. I simply question whether this was necessarily the "objective" of such a program.
you can check this information in the following link:"The civilization of the Indian is impossible while the buffalo remains upon the plains," declared secretary of the interior Columbus Delano in 1873. Two years later, Gen. Philip Sheridan told a joint session of Congress that buffalo hunters had done more to settle what he called "the vexed Indian question" than the entire U.S. army. Sheridan urged the politicians to continue to support the hunters. "For the sake of lasting peace," he said, "let them kill, skin and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated." http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0012570
Aetheling is correct here Phid. There was a overt campaign to kill buffaloes to squeeze out the Plains Indians so that Westward expansion could continue unabated. This isn't revisionist history or anything; it's the truth. It all began with Andrew Jackson and each subsequent administration continued the policies wherever the railroad companies wanted to go.
Aetheling is correct here Phid. There was a overt campaign to kill buffaloes to squeeze out the Plains Indians so that Westward expansion could continue unabated. This isn't revisionist history or anything; it's the truth. It all began with Andrew Jackson and each subsequent administration continued the policies wherever the railroad companies wanted to go.
Before your post I was thinking that the quote Aetheling provided was quite good and really does support his point quite well. I still think that the commercial use of buffalo hides was probably a more significant driver, even though the forced migration of the Plains Indians was also a driver. I'm saying this simply because I think that economics is highly influential on history in general, and more specifically because the drastic reduction of buffalo by 30 million - such a complete wiping out of the herd/supply - highly suggests market forces at play.
Aetheling is correct here Phid. There was a overt campaign to kill buffaloes to squeeze out the Plains Indians so that Westward expansion could continue unabated. This isn't revisionist history or anything; it's the truth. It all began with Andrew Jackson and each subsequent administration continued the policies wherever the railroad companies wanted to go.
Before your post I was thinking that the quote Aetheling provided was quite good and really does support his point quite well. I still think that the commercial use of buffalo hides was probably a more significant driver, even though the forced migration of the Plains Indians was also a driver. I'm saying this simply because I think that economics is highly influential on history in general, and more specifically because the drastic reduction of buffalo by 30 million - such a complete wiping out of the herd/supply - highly suggests market forces at play.
Well in every way except that true market forces would have sought to keep the buffalo trade going to perpetuate the profits rather than let the supply dwindle (of course the more rare a buffalo hide became, the more expensive it got). Still, I would imagine many of the buffalo carcasses remained unharvested.
They reading I've done supports the idea that buffalo aren't the brightest bulbs in the attic… shoot one and the rest mill around and wonder “what happened to Bob”… shoot another; same drill until you run out of ammo or they get bored and wander off. A .50-90 Sharps is a wonderful thing.[Billy Dixon's famous shot at Adobe Walls was with a .50-90... 1538 yards]
Well in every way except that true market forces would have sought to keep the buffalo trade going to perpetuate the profits rather than let the supply dwindle (of course the more rare a buffalo hide became, the more expensive it got). Still, I would imagine many of the buffalo carcasses remained unharvested.
Probably too great of a temptation not to kill as many buffalo as possible, especially when they're wandering free for the taking on the range. But you are right in a sense...a shrewd profiteer would have captured X number of wild buffalo in order to make a business out of them. Actually, that probably was done. The buffalo number I gave before - from 30 million down to less than 100 - I think referred to "wild" buffalo, so if someone corralled 20,000 onto a farm, they would still count against he number of roaming buffalo out there.
My Great-Grandfather told stories of going with his father in the 1880's & 90's to ride trains across the plains and shoot Buffalo as they went. If I remember his story correctly, the railroad companies paid him a certain price per head to kill them because their scarcity drove the indians away from the tracks and reduced railroad maintenance costs due to sabotage.BTW, my Great-Grandfather died in 1978 at age 107, really cool guy and I wish I had known him longer, us kids could listen to him tell stories for hours. He was one of the original "Sooners" in Oklahoma.
