3.3 extermination of the buffalo

Question 1

how many buffalo were on the Great plains in 1840 and how many were on the plains in 1885

Answer 1

1840: 13 million buffalo
1885: only 200 survived

Question 2

What is the deal with buffalo being used by white Americans for clothing and the extermination of the buffalo?

Answer 2

• Before the 1870s, white Americans had hunted buffalo for their warm coats which were made into clothing however this was a long and skilful procedure
• in 1871, a process was discovered for cheaply and quickly turning buffalo hide into the leather which powered US industrialisation and resulted in buffalo hunting becoming profitable

Question 3

What is the deal with hunters and the extermination of buffalo?

Answer 3

Special excursion trains brought people onto the Plains to hunt them for sport and transported the hides back to the cities.

a very efficient process of killing was developed using powerful Sharps’ rifles.

many hunters killed more buffalo that they were able to skin and some inexperienced skinners wasted a lot of hides

Question 4

What is the deal with railroad construction workers and the extermination of the buffalo?

Answer 4

the Buffalo habitat was crossed by railroads.

railroad companies used hunters to kill them to feed construction workers.

Question 5

What was the spiritual reason that Plains Indians believed in which caused the extermination of the buffalo

Answer 5

when white Americans removed the skin of the buffalo the rest of the buffalo was then just discarded to rot on the plains.

the plains Indians believed that this disrespect for the buffalo angered the spirit world and caused the buffalo to disappear.

Question 6

Explain the extermination of the northern and southern herds?

Answer 6

• Hunting of the southern herd peaked in the years 1872-74 when professional buffalo hunters killed around 4.5 million animals compared to 1 million by Plains Indians
• The northern herd was protected by the Great Sioux reservation until 1875. By 1883 the northern herd was gone

Question 7

What were the pre-existing factors which resulted in the industrialised hunting process to cause such rapid extermination?

Answer 7

Buffalo herds were already under huge pressure from :

• repeated droughts in the 1840s
• diseases brought by cows and horses

Question 8

What is the deal with the increase in settlement and the extermination of the buffalo?

Answer 8

the grassland buffalos fed on was destroyed or eaten by other animals when settlers built houses, towns, trails and railroads.

they also caught diseases by settlers’ cattle and horses

Question 9

How did the extermination of the buffalo suit the US government policy of moving Plains Indians onto reservations and encouraging them to learn to farm?

In terms of food and migration

• Plains Indians concept of land vs white settlers
• without the main food source, Indians had to learn how to…
• hunting rights

(good for an importance question)

Answer 9

• Plains Indians resisted going into reservations as long as there was buffalo to hunt. the random migrations of the buffalo herds gave Plains Indians a concept of land use that was not compatible with white settlers’ ideas of fixed, permanent property
• without their main food source, Plains Indians needed to learn to farm and to assimilate. It also made them less independent - they had to rely on the government for food. If the government wanted to force them to do something, they could stop sending food.
• Treaties gave Plains Indians the right to hunt on large areas of the Plains outside their reservations, however, this only lasted as long as there were buffalo to hunt. Once buffalo went, the hunting rights ended also.

Question 10

How did the extermination of the buffalo suit the:

• railroads
• cattle ranchers

Answer 10

• Plains Indians resisted the development of the railroads because the railroads required buffalo to be cleared from the land. Areas without buffalo made for easier railroad building.
• the extinction of the buffalo also opened up the plains for cattle ranching.

Question 11

Buffalo extermination: impact on Plains Indians.

Answer 11

• many Plains Indians, who had the skills for raising cattle, started cattle ranching but herds were badly affected by disease and the crops failed year after year
• reservation Indians became dependent on the government for food handouts
• the government reduced the food rations to punish Plains Indians who took part in resistance resulting in starvation on the reservations
• starvation = lowered resistance to diseases like flu and measles - many died