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You (the U.S. government back then) killed them off just to stick it to the indigenous people, since buffalos played a central role in their lives. That is so m
by cinntaile 5y ago
You (the U.S. government back then) killed them off just to stick it to the indigenous people, since buffalos played a central role in their lives. That is so messed up. From over 60 million to 541 in less than a century according to Wikipedia.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison
- dilap 5y agoYes, extremely tragic.
- ethbr0 5y agoIt's difficult to organize, fund, & perpetrate evil at scale, to the exclusion of a financial motive, so it rarely happens. I'm sure the anti-indigenous Army leaders at the time were pleased with the side effect, but the reality is that firearms + slow moving bison + horses + railroad shipping = profit. And so people kept doing it until bison were almost eradicated.
- dilap 5y agoDefinitely multifactorial, but the US army really did have a policy of killing buffalo w/ the aim of depriving the indians they were fighting of their primary food source.
- ethbr0 5y agoDo you have a citation? Because Wikipedia explicitly mentioned 'This was said, but it's not clear if implementation went beyond someone dreaming out loud.'
- dilap 5y agoMy apologies, I think you are correct! At least per Atlantic. https://archive.is/WeFj2 https://archive.is/WeFj2 They hype up the Army aspect a lot in the first part of the article, but readering further it becomes clear that commerical hunting really was the main driver.
- ethbr0 5y agoThe truth is probably lost in time, or in dead tree diaries, but economics and apathy with regards to conservation do seem the more probable causes, at least for near species-wide extermination. People will do for $1 more quickly than they will for an ideal.