By Beatriz Esquivel
Out of all the people living in America, Native Americans are among the groups that have had it worse, together with the black community. These two groups have faced violent discrimination, segregation, racism, and a systematic deprivation of freedom and basic rights—even today.
In the case of Native Americans, however, the complaint comes from an irrefutable fact: though they were the original inhabitants of American territory, they were persecuted, hunted, and restricted to Indigenous reserves with poor living conditions—as if they were cattle.
A mountain of bison skulls around 1870. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
In the middle of the 19th century, the official policy against Native Americans was so deplorable that government authorities had no qualms about attacking American bisons, also known as American buffalos—one of the most important food supplies and protein sources for the natives.
Though the bison is an emblematic American animal, back then no one thought much about their existence. Between sport hunting, pelt & meat trafficking, and native hunting, this animal was driven to the brink of extinction—as it was believed that for every one of them dead, a Native American died as well.
“Kill Every Buffalo You Can! Every Buffalo Dead Is an Indian Gone.”
Those were the words of a U.S. Army colonel in 1867. Eight years later, General Phil Sheridan went as far as to commission medals to reward anyone who brought pelts from dead bisons. “Let them kill, skin, and sell, until the buffalo is exterminated. It is the only way to bring a lasting peace and allow civilization to advance,” he reportedly said.
According to the book American Environmental History: An Introduction,
“Buffalo war parties went west by train, shooting buffalo from train windows … The average buffalo hunter killed one hundred a day. One hundred thousand buffalo were killed each year, until they were on the verge of extinction, removing the subsistence base from Indian cultures.”
The book goes on to point out that
“a combination of environmental and climatological factors, human and animal diseases, domesticated animals, technologies ranging from six-shooters to railroads, the buffalo trade, and government policies all contributed to the rapid reduction of the Plains Indian tribes by the 1870s.”
This bison-slaughtering policy was one of the American government’s final strategies against the local population, as they knew that unless they lacked sustenance, tribes like the Sioux would never stop fighting for their land and their rights over them. Though coexistence between the European invaders and the natives was at some point more or less peaceful, the American government had other plans—like establishing a train and telegraph network across the country, which required occupying territory in the central plains.
From 1875 forward, the U.S. Congress tried to pass laws to protect the American bison—and relegated the Native American community even further. However, President Ulysses S. Grant refused to sign them, allowing for the indiscriminate hunting (of both non-human animals and Native Americans) to continue. By 1902, the bison population had shrunk to just 23 individuals in the Yellowstone region.
Image: A Little Reality.History has been clear about the outcome of such policies: Native Americans were relegated to “reserves,” which exist even today as pocket territories in which the U.S. supposedly has no jurisdiction. Likewise, the American discriminatory attitude towards Native Americans stands in many ways. Perhaps more implicitly than an overt official government policy, but it’s still a current social issue.
One very recent example of this problem is found in the 2014 development of Dakota’s oil pipe (Dakota Access Pipeline). Though it would involve severe environmental and territorial damage to the Sioux’s sacred sites and their surroundings (especially for the Missouri River), the pipeline was completed in 2017. This sparked intense protests from Native American communities across the nation, showing how, after all these centuries, they are still being exploited even to this day.
Translated by Oliver G. Alvar
Cover photo: Bullock Texas State History Museum
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