<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0"><BR>
L. Falen et. al.<BR>
<BR>
There are disagreements as to how much the destruction of the huge buffalo herds in the 1800s was due to a desire for use of the animals in commerce, sport or for food, or how much the destruction was due to deliberate attempts to wipe them out as a tactic to destroy the cultures of the Native Americans who depended on them. But there is no doubt there was a campaign carried out by the US military to systematically kill buffalo to remove the support the buffalo provided to native cultures. As to whether it was the "official" policy of the US government to wipe out the buffalo there is debate, wink, wink! And regardless, the current scholarship on the treatment of the native population by the invading European forces here in North America does not shrink from use of the term "genocide." The quotes at the bottom are from this link:<BR>
<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.american.edu/TED/ice/buffalo.htm">http://www.american.edu/TED/ice/buffalo.htm</A><BR>
<BR>
And for info on native cultures and "Turtle Island," which is a myth or image used by some native cultures to refer to North America, go to the link below. North America does kind of look like a turtle, though how could native cultures long ago have known this without modern map making or views from space? Turtle Island is also the title of a book of poetry by Gary Snyder, for which he won the Pulitzer in 1975. His use of this image is deliberately drawn from native myth.<BR>
<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.turtleisland.org">http://www.turtleisland.org</A><BR>
<BR>
"In 1874, Secretary of the Interior Delano testified before Congress, "The buffalo are disappearing rapidly, but not faster than I desire. I regard the destruction of such game as Indians subsist upon as facilitating the policy of the Government, of destroying their hunting habits, coercing them on reservations, and compelling them to begin to adopt the habits of civilization." (<U>The Military and United States Indian Policy</U>, p. 171) Two years later, reporter John F. Finerty wrote that the government's Indian allies "killed the animals in sheer wantonness, and when reproached by the officers said: ‘better kill buffalo than have him feed the Sioux.'" Although Sheridan added that "if I could learn that every buffalo in the the northern herd were killed I would be glad," some indications point to a groundswell of military opposition to the killing. (<U>The Military and United States Indian Policy</U>, p. 172) In 1873, the Secretary of War was forwarded a letter from Major R.J. Dodge, endorsed by [General] Pope and Sheridan, that addressed the problem. The Secretary of War also approved Sheridan's request which seemed to indicate the general's own ambivalence on the subject, to authorize Col. De L. Floyd Jones "to put a stop to their wholesale destruction." Several officers protested the wanton destruction to Henry Bergh, president of the America Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The army, while anxious to strike against the Indians' ability to continue their resistance, did not make the virtual extermination of the American bison part of its official policy; in some cases, individual officers took it upon themselves to try and end the slaughter. (<U>The Military and United States Indian Policy</U>, p. 171)<BR>
<BR>
---------------------------------<BR>
<BR>
V2020 Post by Ted Moffett<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</FONT></HTML>