Native Americans & The Buffalo

US History: Spiconardi

Causes of the Buffalo’s D

ecline

Buffalo herds often ripped up train track and caused a problem for the railroads

The Railroads

• Hunted Buffalo– Buffalo stampedes would rip up track– Railroad companies would feed workers buffalo

meat

Tanning

Not this type!

Many American hunters removed the buffalo hides in order to sell them, but left hundreds of thousands of carcasses to rot on the plains. This type!

Tanning •Tanneries paid hunters $1 to $3 for hides

•Hides were sent east to be used as belts on industrial machines•Hunters often left carcasses and other potential uses of the buffalo were wasted

“Kill every buffalo you can. Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone.”~A United States Army Officer

Genocide

• Genocide The planned destruction and elimination of a particular ethnic or religious group

• Americans viewed Native Americans and Indians as a hindrance to their ambitions– The government supported policies that would

remove Indians from the path of white settlement– Wanted to Americanize Indians• Wanted to end nomadic lifestyle of Indians

Impact of the Buffalo’s Decline

Conflict• Tribes of the Great Plains clashed with one

another over hunting rights due to scarcity of the buffalo– Tribes were forced to hunt further from home &

often entered the territory of rival tribes• Being further from home made settlement vulnerable to

raids

Starvation• Lack of buffalo forced Indians to rely on agriculture– If weather caused crops to fail, Indians had no food to

sustain themselves

Loss of Traditional Culture

• Indians would have to adapt to life without the buffalo– 1850: 13 million buffalo– 1880s: less than a thousand buffalo