The Government's Plan To Force The Tribes Into Submission

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

We're in a series about the Wild West and the incredible story of an 11 year old German boy, Hermann, who was captured by an Apache war party from his family's farm in 1870 in Central Texas.

He's now 16 years old at this point in the story and has become a full blown warrior who hates and fears the White man. And in fact, has taken many a scalp.

Yesterday's post

In the last post Hermann's tribe made agreements with other tribes of the region to fight and kill all whites they saw because the Indians were starting to panic.

They were being pushed from their traditional hunting lands by settlers and their main source of food and supplies, the buffalo, was being slaughtered by the thousands each day.

The U.S. federal government's plan was to force the Plains Indian tribes into starvation and onto the reservations by eliminating the buffalo. It was actually worse than that though because many military leaders and politicians wanted to kill off the tribes by starvation.

The feds supported it without doing it themselves

While the government didn't send the army out to kill the herds, they DID furnish hunting expeditions with rifles, ammunition and supplies. One Colonel said "Kill every buffalo you can! Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone.”

Here's a hunting party living it up on the Plains. Many brought tables, tents, and turned it into a big time party with lots of alcohol as they slaughtered the herds.

source

But many were small groups went out to make a fortune in buffalo hide bounties.

source

Hermann said that everyday was exciting because there were so many buffalo hunters all over the country that every time they headed out for the day they were bound to get into some fight or skirmish.

The end results

The government plan worked. Actually it goes down in history as one of the few federal government plan's that actually succeeded and worked like it was supposed to!

The thundering buffalo herds numbering 30 to 50 million strong were reduced to a few hundred and the great beasts almost became extinct. And it DID force the tribes into submission by starvation.

Loading dried buffalo bones to be taken back East to make china or fertilizer:

source

This is the most famous photo of buffalo skulls which gives you an idea of the massive numbers that were murdered:

source

More bones stacked and ready to load up:

source

There was also starvation on the reservations because the government didn't keep their promises.

This is almost a side note and not as important but the disappearing herds also took away a main fuel supply for thousands of settlers and homesteaders on the Plains who burned buffalo dung for heating and cooking:

source

The buffalo was barely saved from extinction but now there are herds on private and public lands in the United States and Canada. I think the number is roughly up to 25,000. Hopefully they'll keep increasing and thriving.

source

Shoot, I done used up all my time talking about the buffalo situation before I got to today's story! lol. Well, at least you know why the tribes were so outraged, angry, and desperate during this time. Their very way of life was being taken from them.

Hermann's tribe continues on the warpath in the next post.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas