In the journal article, "The Frontier Army and the Destruction of the Buffalo: 1865-1883, Smits asserts that the United States ' post-Civil War frontier army was the driving figure in the near extermination of the Great Plains buffalo. This process, which was orchestrated at the highest level of command ,and carried out throughout this ranks, was launched in order to drive the Plains Indians tribes into reservations. This paper will dive into the rationale of the army for their systematic eradication of the buffalo, how it was accomplished, and the major consequences of their pursuit. The mastermind behind the destruction of the buffalo was none other than General Sherman. A highly brutal yet effective Union commander during the Civil War, …show more content…
Army commanders, such as Colonel Custard, utilized the buffalo herds as target practice to train their troops to shoot while riding. Some soldiers, such as those stationed at Fort Cobb, used cannon fire to drive buffalo herds away from the premises. Officers would even hold hunting contests to see which person or team could eliminate the most buffalo in a certain amount of time (Smits, 319). On top of their own killing spree, the army would invite prominent businessmen and heads of state (such as Grand Duke Alexis of Russia) to participate in buffalo hunts. During these hunts, the hunters would only keep the tongue and best cuts of meat, while leaving the rest of the body to rot. As a result of these hunts, hundreds to thousands of buffalo were killed in a single season. At the result of these mass killings, the buffalo population of North America was driven to the verge of …show more content…
As stated by an unknown high ranking officer, "if we kill the buffalo we conquer the Indian" (Smits, 331). Based on the written testimonies and historical hunts presented, I agree with the Smits ' assertion that the extermination of the buffalo was planned, orchestrated, and encouraged by the highest commanders of the United States army. The primary ramification was the elimination of the buffalo must not only be considered in terms of economic "progress" and "profit". Its chief aim was to pacify the resisting plains tribes while connecting the burgeoning nation by an interconnected system of
Professor Thomas Slaughter has provided a most thorough overview of the Whiskey Rebellion, which he asserts had by the time this book was conceived nearly two centuries after the episode transpired, had become a largely forgotten chapter of our nation's history since the time of the Civil War. He cites as direct evidence of this fact the almost complete absence of any mention of the event in many contemporary textbooks of the conservative era of the 1980's, which this reviewer can attest to as well, having been a high school student in the late 1970's, who never heard of the Whiskey Rebellion until years later. Building off of his own dissertation on the topic, the author convincingly shows that the Whiskey Rebellion was in fact an event of tremendous importance for the future of the fledgling United States of America, which was spawned by the head-long collision of a variety of far-reaching forces and factors in the still quite primitive environs of western Pennsylvania that summer and fall. Slaughter contends that one must place the frontier at the center of the great political debates of the era and fully explore the ideological, social, political, and personal contexts surrounding the episode in order to fully understand the importance of its place in American history. In doing so the author has produced a very readable work that may be enjoyed by casual readers, who will likely find the individual vignettes which open each chapter particularly fascinating, and a highly useful basis of further research by future scholars into the importance of the frontier region as it relates to events on a national scale in those early days of the republic.
Battle Analysis of the Battle of Little Bighorn On June 25, 1876, The Battle of Little Bighorn took place near the Black Hills in Montana. This was one of the most controversial battles of the 20th century and the line between good guys and bad guys was grey at best. Gen. George Armstrong Custer (reduced to LTC after the civil war) had 366 men of the 7th U.S. Cavalry under his command that day. Sitting Bull (A Medicine Man) led 2000 braves of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes (Klos, 2013).
War is always destructive and devastating for those involved leaving behind a trail of death and barren landscape leading to heartbreak and shattered lives. War has its subjugators and its defeated. One enjoys complete freedom and rights while the other has neither freedom nor rights. Defeated and broken is where the Eastern Woodland Indians found themselves after both the Seven Years' war and the American Revolution. The Europeans in their campaigns to garner control of the land used the native peoples to gain control and ultimately stripped the rightful owners of their land and freedoms. The remainder of this short paper will explore the losses experienced by the Eastern Woodland Indians during these wars and will answer the question of which war was more momentous in the loss experienced.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was an abuse of power exerted on the Indian tribes residing in America by the people of the colonies as well as presidents at the time of their removal. Many Indians affected lost their lives, their loved one’s lives’, and the land they thrived on dating back years to their ancestors. This act would be later named “the trail of tears” because of the monumental loss the Indian tribes had endured during their displacement, and the physical and psychological damages of these people (TOTWSR).
The development of the transcontinental railroad was the most devastating technological development that affected the Plains Indians. Although the railroad was powerful and helpful to the white man, it was not for the Plains Indians. The transcontinental railroad was the reason why the westward movement of the white man happened so quickly. With the white man moving westward they found valuable land for agricultural, which to be the Plains Indians land, and they found a lot of gold mines. During the time of the building of the transcontinental railroad a lot of white man killed the buffalo. They found that as a sport, and even to use it to harm the Plains Indians. At that time the buffalo was a main source of food, fur, and a hunting lifestyle for the Plains Indians and by the white man killing it off it effectively hurt them. The white man killed the buffalo in large amount of numbers that they almost made them go instinct, and they hurt the Plains Indians huge. Although the Plains Indians did kill the buffalo for their food and furs, their hunting did not have a large impact on the buffalo population. Also, the transcontinental railroad went through the land that the Plains Indians lived on. They were forced to move into smaller areas that were designated by the government. A lot of wars happened over this issue, and over the issue of gold being on their land.
O'Neill, Laurie A.. Chapter 9: Final Defeat of the Plains Indians. The Millbrook Press, 1993. eLibrary.
In 1830, the President of the United States Andrew Jackson issued an order for the removal of the Native Americans, which passed through both houses of Congress. “When Andrew Jackson became president (1829–1837), he decided to build a systematic approach to Indian removal on the basis of these legal precedents.” (William. Pg 5). It gave the president power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to the west. “Thomas Jefferson was the original instigator of the idea of removing a...
One of the greatest injustices of American history included, starvation, illness, and death. These hardships were undeservingly forced upon an innocent group of people – the Native Americans. One may think that the Trail of Tears was only a simple journey the Indians made to discover new frontiers. This is not the case. The Trail of Tears was the result of the white man’s selfishness, causing Indians to lose their homes and belongings. The act was full of unfair treatment, cruelty, and heartlessness. This tragic event took place in the nineteenth century, and was mostly initiated by President Andrew Jackson. In 1814, Jackson proposed an idea for a new act called the Indian Removal Act. (pbs) This act was not widely accepted throughout America, but was initiated because of some Americans wanting more land and gold – resources owned by Native Americans. The Trail of Tears caused much controversy and confusion, and many tears and heartache followed along the way.
But the treaty was destined for failure. Commercial buffalo hunters essentially ignored the terms of the treaty as they moved into the area promised to the Southern Plains Indians. The great southern herd of American bison, lifeblood of the Southern Plains tribes, was all but exterminated in just four yearsfrom 1874 to 1878. The hunters slaughtered the animals by the thousands, sending the hides back East and leaving the carcasses to rot on the plainsand the U.S. government did nothing to stop them. The disappearance of the buffalo impoverished the tribes and forced them to depend on reservation rations.
The journey of exploration to the western territories brought the white man many great things, but they did face some opposition. The US government made plans to explore the Black Hills, after hearing of the gold it contained. This was not an easy task. The Sioux, with strong force, were not giving up their sacred land easily. The only way to gain the territory of the Black Hills was to wage war against the Sioux. The Battle of the Little Big Horn was one battle that the US will never forget. General George Custer led an army of men to take out the Sioux, one of the battalions was completely wiped out including Custer. The Sioux were very strong, but US had a lot more power and technology. Why did we get massacred? This question has been a mystery to many people throughout the years. Sergeant Windolph, of Benteen’s cavalry, and John F. Finerty, from General Crooks cavalry, bring us some personal accounts and memories of this tragedy.
The Buffalo Soldiers was mostly known as the African American Cavalry who was in war of the American army during 1867-1896. They were on the frontier fighting against the Indians. The Buffalo soldiers was the black African American who fighted for the United States Army but not beside the whites. The Indians called African American Buffalo Solders because their strength, ability of a buffalo, and also they had similar texture in the hair of a buffalo that hung of the back of a buffalo neck. When they won’t fighting against the Indians, They helped build forts, railroads work, and also as travel stagecoaches, helped protect others such as travelers and settlers . They were treated harshly; they weren’t receiving good conditions of things that they need to stay healthy as they need to be.
In order to understand the lack of morality on the part of the United States, the actions taken by the group in favor of removing the Indians and their opponents needs examining. The seeds of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 are rooted in colonial times and continued to grow during the early years of the American republic. To comprehend this momentous tragedy we must first examine the historical background of the Indian '"'problem'"' and seek rationale for the American government"'"s actions. This includes looking at the men who politically justified the expulsion of the Cherokee nation and those who argued against it.
During the West movement of 1830’s and 1840’s, there were many conflicts that American settlers faced. The first problem settlers had to solve was relations with the Native Americans. As the numbers of American settlers grew, the life of Native Americans was greatly affected. The Native Americans tried to maintain their cultural traditions and the peace with white settlers, but they were often forced to move out of their homeland. Then came the Black Hawk War, which was the Native Americans’ rebellion against the United States in Illinois and Wisconsin Territory. After failure of this rebellion, Native Americans were forced to abandon their lands and move to reservation even with the Fort Laramie Treaty, which promised the pea...
LTC George Armstrong Custer did not effectively apply the concept of mission command as a warfighting function during the Battle of Little Bighorn. While it is important to understand the context in which Custer made his decisions, those circumstances offer little in terms of excusing the fiasco that was Little Bighorn. Custer failed to follow orders, did not take pertinent intelligence into consideration, did not adequately plan or execute protection of his forces, and fought without essential fires equipment available to him. Custer did exercise good sustainment, but it was for naught, as the battle was brief.
The first point he made was how the Westward expansion affected the Plains Indians. The Plains Indian tribes consisted mostly of the Kiowa, Kiowa Apaches, Comanche, Sioux, and Cheyenne. As the white settlers made their way across the country taking land, the Indians pushed back by raiding settlements and killing the occasional settler. More and more white settlers were pouring into the West in search of gold and silver. As the settlers came into the territories, large herds of buffalo were killed, much of the time just for the sport of it. This had an adverse affect on the Indians since they relied on buffalo not only for food, but also for hides and blankets as well as to make teepees. Another factor was the pony herds; the U.S. Army frequently seized herds and a herd of upwards of one thousand was killed just so the Indians would not be able to use them. The soldiers that were on patrol in the West kept pushing the Indians, driving them away from their hunting and fishing grounds.