1870s–1880s
Economic destructionBook sources
Near-extermination of Plains buffalo
Great Plains; buffalo-dependent Indigenous nations
Commercial hunting, railroad expansion, and military encouragement devastated buffalo herds. Destruction of a central food and material resource undermined Native autonomy and increased dependence on federal rations.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
Do not assign all buffalo deaths to soldiers or claim a single uniform statute ordered every killing.
Sources
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (2014), chapter 8
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States (2014), chapter 10