Buffalo decimation caused the Lakota’s spiritual and ethnic death

Evidence

Psychologist Utng Erickson’s analysis of Lakota communities documents in part the internalized impact of constantly degrading and “disempowering” federal policies on Indian people. He considers the modern Lakota to “have a group neurosis, with identity being formed upon the status of being persecuted and due compensation.” Erickson contrasts this “cultural pathology” with the absence of “individual psychopathology.” Erickson specifically discusses the impact of the loss of the buffalo economy on the Lakota people, noting that “the decimation of the buffalo led to the spiritual and ethnic death of the Lakota. The Lakota attempted to recover from this tragedy through embracing the cattle economy, but again government prohibitions removed cattle from the Lakota to serve white ranchers’ interests and devastated the growing economy.” Erickson writes, “Step for step, the Sioux have been denied the basis for a collective identity formation and with it that reservoir of collective integrity from which the individual must derive his stature as a social being.” — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 748

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Generational trauma makes 1997 buffalo slaughter replay 1855 massacre — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 778; Buffalo were reduced from 50 million to 26 in the US — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 751; Land allotment and dam flooding drive current Lakota social pathology — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 747 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• U.S. forces slaughtered buffalo deliberately to starve Native peoples into submission #expands (0.82) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1195
• Animal species loss inflicts spiritual and psychological harm on Indigenous peoples #corroborates (0.80) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1649
• Buffalo restoration is tied to restoring Native social and political structure #expands (0.78) — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 804
• The near-extermination of the buffalo devastated Plains nations partly as deliberate strategy #expands (0.75) — , A Year of World Stories, 10112
• Settler violation of reciprocal land ethics caused cascading ecological and cultural loss #corroborates (0.72) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 763