Tag Archives: buffalo

Winter and Scarcity

Leave a reply

Buffalo Hunting for Money

Like many peoples dependent upon agriculture and hunting, Native Americans could face scarcity and deprivation if crops were poor or hunting was bad. If tribes had a regional primary food source, such as corn in parts of the Southwest or buffalo on the Plains, anything that tipped the balance against them had enormous ramifications. Losing good land hurt tribes dependent upon agriculture, and over-hunting hurt others more dependent on meat for winter survival. Many times, the intrusion of white settlers tipped the balance against Native American food security.

Native Americans on the Plains used almost every part of the buffalo, and its meat was critically important for survival. Originally, buffalo seemed to be limitless in number–some scientists estimate they may have numbered as high as 30 million before European settlers came to the continent–but several factors served to drive them to near extinction.:

–Native Americans were able to kill many more buffalo than they previously could, once they acquired horses and guns.

–Buffalo were forced to compete with horses and cattle, while ranchers killed many buffalo to clear land for cattle.

–Railroads required cleared land for trains, and workers killed many buffalo for food.

–Some buffalo were deliberately killed out of spite or as a policy to decimate the Plains’ best food source.

–Hunters and sport shooters slaughtered buffalo for the thrill of downing these enormous animals.

By the late 1990s, there were only two thousand or so buffalo left.

Last Buffalo Killed in N. Dakota (Jan 1907), courtesy Library of Congress Fred Hulstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections

Pile of Buffalo Skulls To Be Ground Into Fertilizer, circa 1870s, courtesy Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library

______________________________________________________________________________________

 

—

Homeless and Hungry

Leave a reply
Last Buffalo Killed in N. Dakota (Jan 1907) courtesy Library of Congress Fred Hulstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections

Last Buffalo Killed in N. Dakota (Jan 1907) courtesy Library of Congress Fred Hulstrand and F.A. Pazandak Photograph Collections

Patients at Canton Asylum certainly didn’t thrive, but most Native Americans were not doing well anywhere else, either. Even the most basic underpinnings of life, like food, had been taken from them and distorted. This led to nutritional deficiencies and diseases that had never affected them before encountering the white man’s culture.

Native American diets were varied, nutritious, and plentiful until they lost control over their food. Depending upon the part of the country they inhabited, tribes ate liberally of the “Three Sisters” (beans, corn, and squash), wild rice, nuts, berries, fish, and game of all sorts. Besides hunting and gathering food from the surrounding area, many tribes cultivated crops, as well.

When Indians were forced to live on reservations, they lost their homes, their cultures, and their independence. Along with that, the quality of their food immediately deteriorated. Often, tribes became dependent on government rations, which were a far cry from the unrefined foods they had previously eaten. Sugar, flour, and poor quality meat were the new staples, and  Native American health immediately suffered.