U.S. forces slaughtered buffalo deliberately to starve Native peoples into submission

Evidence

One by one, tribes were forced off their land and put on reservations. The social and ecological consequences of this process were devastating: The huge herds of buffalo that once roamed the plains in the millions were slaughtered as a means of depriving the people of a major food source. “One Congressman, James Throckmorton of Texas, believed that ‘it would be a great step forward in the civilization of the Indians and the preservation of peace on the border if there was not a buffalo in existence’” (PBS, American Buffalo: Spirit of a Nation, retrieved on August 2, 2010 from www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/american-buffalo-spirit-of-anation/introduction/2183). The herds were reduced to a few hundred in a matter of years. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1195

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Buffalo annihilation as ecosystem-weapon parallels the ‘Grafting & Growth’ worldbuilding thread of tamarisk/civil infrastructure and of ecological processes as deliberate instruments of power.
• XREF: connects to: Montana slaughtered over 2,500 Yellowstone buffalo in three years — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 710; Generational trauma makes 1997 buffalo slaughter replay 1855 massacre — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 778; Buffalo slaughter protects only about 3,000 cattle on wildlife-designated public land — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 766 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• The near-extermination of the buffalo devastated Plains nations partly as deliberate strategy #corroborates (0.90) — , A Year of World Stories, 10112
• Buffalo restoration is tied to restoring Native social and political structure #expands (0.75) — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 804
• Disease, not Spanish brutality, destroyed the native peoples of the Americas #complicates (0.70) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1902