DIBAAJIMOWIN
  • HOME
  • Dibaajimowin Blog
  • Metis People
  • Ojibwe People
  • Author

Story Blog

Buffalo Extermination Was an Act of Genocide

6/20/2019

9 Comments

 
​In 1870, James McKay, a well-known Red River half-breed trader and hunter, reported that during the 1850s he had traveled for twenty days through a continuous herd of buffalo. The herd was so large that for as far as he could see on all sides was the landscape, black with the animals.  However, by 1870, the construction of the railroads and the pressure of white hunters had decimated the buffalo on the plains.
Picture
White hide hunters with thousands of hides collected for shipment out east
​It was said by many if the buffalo were left unmolested, and the Indians and half-breeds were allowed to hunt them the way that they had always done, the buffalo would have lasted forever and the natives would have stayed strong. But the building of the railroad was the death knell for the buffalo and for the Indigenous people who relied on them. 

While it is certain that the Red River half-breeds hunted them in immense numbers, they were not to blame for the destruction of the buffalo on the plains.  The true cause of the destruction of the buffalo was committed over a short period of time by the American “pot-and-hide hunters”. These men, in order to gratify the cravings of wealthy citizens for tongues and hides, were formed into large parties, with lavish outfits supplied by eastern firms who used the railroads to transport countless white hunters, under who the work of extermination speedily began. 
Picture
White youth with thousands of skulls from exterminated buffalo
​The white hunters and their financiers saw profit, and then the havoc became truly stupendous.  The hunters' were given the best weapons, and their methods were so systematic, that the very skinning of the buffalo they slaughtered was done by horse-power. The dead buffalo were fastened to a stake and an incision was made, after which a span of horses was hitched to the hide, and off it came. The hides were then shipped to the nearest railway points in wagons, and the carcasses were left to rot upon the ground. In this way it is estimated that in three years nearly six million animals were destroyed. 

This destruction went on all over the plains from Manitoba to Texas. It was reported that during one winter, there were so many carcasses of slaughtered buffalo that a man could go along the banks of the Frenchman Creek for fifty miles by simply jumping from one carcass to another.  

Once the buffalo were almost gone, it was a simple task for the government agents and land speculators to force the Indians and half-breeds into taking scrip, signing treaties, and moving onto reservations, because the only other choice was starvation.  It was an act of genocide and a great evil of colonialism in North America.

Reference:
Mair, C. (1891). The American Bison: Its Habits, Method of Capture and Economic Use in the North-west. (From) the Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, volume VIII, section II, 1890.
9 Comments
Mike Hennessy
6/20/2019 12:08:26 pm

These slaughters didn't stop with the Buffalo either. The Beaver was almost trapped out of existence for its pelt. Then wolves had a bounty on them (I think big cats did too, but they were tougher to find) because they needed to eliminate predators.

I'm not so sure that this is just a "White" thing though. I think this is a "Human" thing. In all of these cases the humans (Including the half breeds mentioned here) did these slaughters because they saw it benefited them to do so. This was in a time when hunting for food was the norm so killing to gather pelts or to eliminate dangerous predators seemed like a natural solution because it must have seemed that the sources were endless.

Being at the top of the food chain with the highest intelligence really hasn't made humans very good stewards of planet earth. Those who lived off the Buffalo did so in relatively small numbers so the balance stayed intact, but who knows what would have happened once populations expanded? Humankind already has a bit of history regarding this....Easter Island is thought to have lost most of its natives to starvation after decimating all of their natural resources without finding ways to replenish them.

I'm not trying to diminish the weight of what happened in any manner what so ever. I'm just trying to show a more three dimensional view on the subject because sometimes these issues go beyond seperation of races and into just the human race where we have a lot of similarities.

Reply
Valerie Goodness
6/21/2019 09:47:19 am

As a Native ecosystems scientist my research shows, through extensive archival studies, that the bison extinction efforts were not a "human thing". Genocide is a colonizer construct. Humans that coevolved within their ecosystems/habitats/territories had hunting policies that focused on sustainability for the sake of subsistence living. The Europeans from colonizing countries (not all Euro-immigrants were colonizers) had long extirpated their own native species by 200 years, before coming to this continent. England and beaver is a good example. There is plenty of written evidence that the corrupt railroad companies had ordered the deaths of bison which would then decimate Indigenous people. Letters between the military, church officials, and government representatives prove this, as well as treaties with Indians from the 1600s promising the protection of "fur bearing animals" since Tribes were worried about populations. So what it the moral of this story? Colonizers are the cancer of the planet, who still can't follow laws and treaties...

Reply
susan James link
7/6/2019 05:39:53 pm

Exactly.

Wendy
6/23/2019 05:37:42 pm

There is a very good resource on what occurred during the time called "Clearing the Plains". A must read to fully understand the government policy of the time.

https://uofrpress.ca/Books/C/Clearing-the-Plains2

Reply
Max
6/22/2019 06:31:50 am

Humanity is a history of two types of people encountering natural beauty such as a buffalo, a forest or a whale. One type of man is awe struck and feels love for the universe. One type of man thinks "I should kill it".
The second type of human has historically taken all the resources and accumulated the most wealth, written all of the laws, designed the education system and even the entire value system for 'western' society. That is why we are in the trouble we are in today. The killers have always won.

Reply
Bill©
6/23/2019 01:57:07 am

A government enacted plan to starve the Indians into submission.

The killers will kill themselves and Earth will revitalize herself.
It may take a while but it shall come to pass.

Reply
Fraus T. Kaliste
6/23/2019 03:23:06 am

This still happens today, although it's White Doctors from S. Africa who are sneakily corrupting the balance of Property Purchase in North America by Culling the Population thru drug overdoses in Neighborhoods of the disadvantage as well as more private areas edge in suburbia to the City.

Through a list of Secret Societys, ans Church Organizations provisional of rules in the Communities secular of themselves amidst leveling playing fields to their advantage. In case study that it was said Prescott Bush (Father and Grandfather of President's George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush) had initiated in Fraternal pressure had stolen Skeletal Remains of Geronimo from the Chief's Grave and took them to 322 Skull & Bones (Oars & Pinheads) Fraternity and stored them there at the predominantly White Ivy League University in the Fraternity.

For what Fraternity plague to pledge in the Juvenile act to claim those Bones post harbinger a curse to the People of this Land which as stolen of the Magnitude to look only so far to find at cursed historical event 9/11/01 for example.

You steal from the Land, you mess with the Bull, you bugger of your children, Each one, including those of your children will come back and smash your skulls in, take you by the Horns, inadvertence to white man's mistakes those now who poison the heritage of their family memory in their own existance, suffer trite to learn sooner than later, which never is not an eternal resting period which exhumed damnation of in spirit rest not of the wicked for the wicked never rise again cosmically at avis avexation.

Kinder-folk words from beyond the grave, who spoke of The Damned in remission of their Souls.
Gelo va strommar garivar gover comme regover.

Reply
charles ducharme
7/2/2019 04:40:56 pm

we were told of the extermination of the buffalos in order for the indians to starve and freeze to death, in order to gain the lands, now with killings of many native woman , the whiteman sits back waiting for us to retaliate so they can wipe us out with the army than justfy in there white courts, immagrants coming to canada will be grabbing up what they can before the indians relize that its all been taken away from them , more native are being educated and that is becoming a threat to the white race , natives need more lawyers

Reply
Kevin Anderson
7/3/2019 05:12:13 pm

And throughout the story, Bison are repeatedly referred to as buffalo. Buffalo live in Africa and Asia. We in the North America have Bison. The early settlers ignorantly called the bison "buffalo" because they were too uneducated to know the differnce. There is also a breed of Bison in Europe called Wisent, or European (Wood) Bison. In recent times, North American Bison were used to try to increase the Wisent population.

Many Natives today also call Bison "buffalo" because the ignorant whites that taught English to the Natives didn't know the difference, and so, misidentified the bison when teaching the English language. That error made it's way into schools for American children as well. I guess, "give me a home where the BISON roam" just didn't have the same appeal.

All the European settlers knew of the bison was that the indinous plains population depended on them for survival and that removal of them would likely mean the end of the indigenous population. Of course, the Jesuit missionaries were going from tribe to tribe, teaching the words attributed to Jesus, while failing to tell them that Europeans saw the indigenous peoples of the Americas as souless, less than human creatures for whom the teachings of Jesus did not apply, and so killing them was not a sin.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    PAST ENTRIES

    Tawn Kaayaash
    Metis Stories
    Elder Stories
    Women Stories
    School Stories
    Legends
    Family Stories
    Love Stories

    RSS Feed

About Dibaajimowin

Dibaajimowin was created as a way to share interesting and unique stories and other information about the Metis and Ojibwe people (and others) so that these can be used by our guests to educate themselves and others about the history, culture, and language of the people.

We hope you enjoy everything you find here and are glad to have you return in the future. If you are interested in using our content for educational or personal purposes, please give proper attribution and credit to our page. It is important that we acknowledge the tellers of stories and the creators of intellectual property in all forms.

​Please enjoy! See you soon.

  • HOME
  • Dibaajimowin Blog
  • Metis People
  • Ojibwe People
  • Author