Historian Richard White represents the scholarly consensus in stating that "various military commanders encouraged the slaughter of bison" by white hide hunters in order to cut the heart from the Plains Indians' economy.
General Sherman, more than any other officer, was responsible for devising a strategy to conquer the Plains Indians. Remembered most for his Civil War "march through Georgia, "Sherman was a battle-seasoned veteran who in 1866 assumed command of the Division of the Missouri which, encompassed the vast wind-blown blanket of grass known as the Great Plains, home to those Indians whose life revolved around the buffalo. In 1869,ShermansucceededGrantascommandinggeneral, apposition that he held until his retirement in 1883.
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Hide hunter Billy Dixon reminisced that the annihilation "lay at the very heart of the grievances of the Indian against the white man in frontier days." At the Medicine Lodge Treaty Council of 1867, the great Kiowa chief Satanta complained bitterly about the army's shooting of his buffalo. "A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers, "lamented Satanta, "but when I go up to the river I see a camp of soldiers, and they are cutting my wood down, or killing my buffalo. I don't like that, and when I see it my heart feels like bursting with sorrow."Satanta was furious at the army because the two infantry companies that escorted the peace commissioners from Fort Lamed to Medicine Lodge Creek had want only slaughtered buffalo along the route of their march. Riding spare cavalry horses, most of the soldier hunters had dismounted to cut the tongues from the animals they had dropped; others sliced hump steaks from their kills; some merely left the dead buffalo lying where they fell and rode on to continue the bloodshed. In response, Satanta complained to General William Hamey, asking" has the white man become a child, that he should recklessly kill and not eat? When the red men slay game, they do so that they may live and not starve."26 Evidently, then, at the outset of his winter campaign of 1868-1869, Sheridan was under the impression hat the western army could significantly reduce the buffalo herds, there by demoralizing the plains tribes. Sheridan's confidence in the army's ability to eradicate the buffalo evaporated as his participation in the campaign gave him a better appreciation of the immensity of the southern herd. On 3 December1868, from a depot on the North Canadian, Sheridan wrote to the army's assistant adjutant general informing him that the federal government" makes a great mistake in giving these Indians
General Sherman, more than any other officer, was responsible for devising a strategy to conquer the Plains Indians. Remembered most for his Civil War "march through Georgia, "Sherman was a battle-seasoned veteran who in 1866 assumed command of the Division of the Missouri which, encompassed the vast wind-blown blanket of grass known as the Great Plains, home to those Indians whose life revolved around the buffalo. In 1869,ShermansucceededGrantascommandinggeneral, apposition that he held until his retirement in 1883.
But …show more content…
Hide hunter Billy Dixon reminisced that the annihilation "lay at the very heart of the grievances of the Indian against the white man in frontier days." At the Medicine Lodge Treaty Council of 1867, the great Kiowa chief Satanta complained bitterly about the army's shooting of his buffalo. "A long time ago this land belonged to our fathers, "lamented Satanta, "but when I go up to the river I see a camp of soldiers, and they are cutting my wood down, or killing my buffalo. I don't like that, and when I see it my heart feels like bursting with sorrow."Satanta was furious at the army because the two infantry companies that escorted the peace commissioners from Fort Lamed to Medicine Lodge Creek had want only slaughtered buffalo along the route of their march. Riding spare cavalry horses, most of the soldier hunters had dismounted to cut the tongues from the animals they had dropped; others sliced hump steaks from their kills; some merely left the dead buffalo lying where they fell and rode on to continue the bloodshed. In response, Satanta complained to General William Hamey, asking" has the white man become a child, that he should recklessly kill and not eat? When the red men slay game, they do so that they may live and not starve."26 Evidently, then, at the outset of his winter campaign of 1868-1869, Sheridan was under the impression hat the western army could significantly reduce the buffalo herds, there by demoralizing the plains tribes. Sheridan's confidence in the army's ability to eradicate the buffalo evaporated as his participation in the campaign gave him a better appreciation of the immensity of the southern herd. On 3 December1868, from a depot on the North Canadian, Sheridan wrote to the army's assistant adjutant general informing him that the federal government" makes a great mistake in giving these Indians