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Outline for Wikipedia Article

Cultural Differences in Understandings of Buffalo
 * Differing understandings regarding Indians often didn’t believe in extinction due to cultural differences, and thus found colonist hunting to be relatively innocuous
 * “Indians perceived the buffalo as part of the natural world guaranteed to them by the Creator, a spiritual gift that, if properly respected, would endure. The concept of species extinction was foreign to them, and, unlike American culture, Native cultures were built on an ethos of stability, not change. Progress was uniquely a white man’s concept, virtually impossible to translate into Indian languages.” (Nation to Nation, 101)
 * Many American buffalo hunters viewed buffalo as a way of wiping out the Indians. For instance, one officer was quoted saying “Kill every buffalo you can! Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone” (296, Hubbard). When treaty or trade attempts failed, buffaloes became a more accessible target for settlers to exert their influence

Replacing Buffalo with Cattle (Economic Interests)
 * “Non-indian farmers cultivate, lease, and graze cattle on about 63% of Indian agricultural lands” (Laduke, 143)
 * Buffaloes are much better suited for the snowier, colder climates than cattle (140, Laduke)
 * By wiping out buffalo, Natives slowly became forced to buy beef from western ranchers—in addition to frequently starving (Laduke, 140)
 * “Buffalo leather suddenly became part of the world economy, prized for machinery belts and army boots.” (297 Hubbard)

Military and Political Involvement
 * Recent scholarship has suggested that buffalo extermination was part of a well-calculated policy to drive Native Americans onto reserves. Civilian hunting missions and artillery/cannon destruction of buffalo were some of these military efforts. (Hubbard, 296)
 * Buffaloes were used for shooting practice
 * Army encouraged civilian sport hunters and hide hunters to slaughter buffalo… It was part of patriotic practice in some instances.
 * “Kill every buffalo you can! Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone!”
 * On 26 June 1869, the prestigious Army Navy Journal reported that "General Sherman remarked in conversation the other day, that the quickest way to compel the Indians to settle down to civilized life was to send ten regiments of soldiers to the plains, with orders to shoot buffaloes until they became too scarce to support the redskins

Spiritual Loss
 * Buffalo played an integral role in Plains culture; a Lakota ceremony exists that commemorates each taken buffalo. (148 Laduke)
 * It had a harrowing emotional effect on the morale of Indians at this time, and still affects them to this day.
 * GHOST DANCE ARTICLE

Effect on Ecosystem The Plains region has lost nearly one-third of its prime topsoil. Two hundred years ago, most of the prairie region had over 21 inches of topsoil. Now, in some regions, less than six inches remain. (147 Laduke)
 * The quality of soil suffered heavily due to this mass buffalo slaughter and replacement with cattle
 * Water is also being pillaged
 * “Today, 20 percent of nationally irrigated cropland is serviced by the Ogallala aquifer, but hydrologists suggest it will be depleted within 30 years” (147 Laduke)

Opposition to Buffalo Hunting
 * Officers who viewed themselves as true sportsmen also disdained the great buffalo slaughter because it bore no resemblance whatever to the so-called "noble pastime."
 * Lieutenant Colonel Albert Brackett of the Second Cavalry expressed this view to Bergh:"All reports about fine sport and good shooting are mere gammon.It would be equally good sport, and equally dangerous,to ride into a herd of tame cattle and butcher them. The wholesale of buffaloes indiscriminately. butchery upon the plains is as needless as it is cruel."