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027 - Part II Chapter 6 Effects of Extermination · Extermination of the American Bison

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty six of the Extermination of the American Bison.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Avayill in December two
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  Speaker 1: thousand fourteen. The Extermination of the American Bison by William T. Hornaday,
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  Speaker 1: Part two, Chapter six. Effects of the Extermination. The Buffalo
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  Speaker 1: supplied the Indian with food, clothing, shelter, bedding, saddles, ropes, shields,
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  Speaker 1: and innumerable smaller articles of use and ornament. In the
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  Speaker 1: United States, a paternal government takes the place of the
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  Speaker 1: buffalo in supplying all these wants of the red man,
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  Speaker 1: and it costs several millions of dollars annually to accomplish
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  Speaker 1: the task. The following other tribes which depended very largely,
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  Speaker 1: some almost wholly, upon the buffalo for the necessities and
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  Speaker 1: many of the luxuries of their savage life until the
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  Speaker 1: government began to support them Sous thirty thousand, five hundred
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  Speaker 1: sixty one, Crow three thousand, two hundred twenty six, Pigan,
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  Speaker 1: Blood and black Feet two thousand, twenty six, Cheyenne three thousand,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred seventy seven, Croventre eight hundred fifty six a
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  Speaker 1: Rickare five hundred seventy Mandan two hundred eighty three, Bannek
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  Speaker 1: and shoshone two thousand and one, nez Perce one thousand,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred sixty Asinniboyne one thousand, six hundred eighty eight,
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  Speaker 1: Kiowas and Comanches two thousand, seven hundred fifty six, Arapahoe
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  Speaker 1: one thousand, two hundred seventeen, Apache three hundred thirty two,
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  Speaker 1: ut nine hundred seventy eight, Omaha one thousand, one hundred
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  Speaker 1: sixty Pawnee nine hundred ninety eight, Winnebago one thousand, two
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  Speaker 1: hundred twenty two total fifty four thousand, seven hundred fifty eight.
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  Speaker 1: This enumeration from the census of eighteen eighty six leaves
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  Speaker 1: entirely out of consideration many thousands of Indians living in
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  Speaker 1: the Indian Territory and other portions of the Southwest who
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  Speaker 1: drew an annual supply of meat and ropes from the
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  Speaker 1: Chase of the Buffalo. Notwithstanding the fact that their chief
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  Speaker 1: dependence was upon agriculture, the Indians of what was once
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  Speaker 1: the Buffalo Country are not starving and freezing for the
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  Speaker 1: reason that the United States government supplies them regularly with
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  Speaker 1: by and blankets indeu of buffalo Thus, anyone imagined that
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  Speaker 1: the government could not have regulated the killing of buffaloes
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  Speaker 1: and thus maintained the supply for far less money than
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  Speaker 1: it now costs to feed and clothe those fifty four thousand,
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  Speaker 1: seven hundred fifty eight Indians. How is it with the
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  Speaker 1: Indians of the British possessions today? Professor John Mackin writes
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  Speaker 1: as follows in his Manitoba and the Great Northwest, page
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  Speaker 1: three hundred forty two. During the last three years prior
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  Speaker 1: to eighteen eighty three, the great herds have been kept
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  Speaker 1: south of our boundary, and as the result of this,
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  Speaker 1: our Indians have been on the verge of starvation. When
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  Speaker 1: the hills were covered with countless thousands of buffaloes in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy seven, the black Feet were dying of starvation
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  Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy nine. During the winter of eighteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: six through eighteen destitution and actual starvation prevailed to an
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  Speaker 1: alarming extent among certain tribes of Indians in the Northwest Territory,
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  Speaker 1: who once lived bountifully on the buffalo a terrible tale
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  Speaker 1: of suffering in the Athabasca and Peace River country has recently,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen eighty eight come to the Minister of the Interior
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  Speaker 1: of the Canadian government in the form of a petition
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  Speaker 1: signed by the Bishop of that diocese, six clergymen and missionaries,
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  Speaker 1: and several justices of the Peace. It sets forth that,
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  Speaker 1: owing to the destruction of game, the Indians both last
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  Speaker 1: winter and last summer have been in a state of starvation.
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  Speaker 1: They are now in a complete state of destitution and
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  Speaker 1: are utterly unable to provide themselves with clothing, shelter, ammunition
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  Speaker 1: or food for the coming winter. The petition declares that,
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  Speaker 1: on account of starvation and consequent cannibalism, a party of
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  Speaker 1: twenty nine Cree Indians was reduced to three in the
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  Speaker 1: winter of eighteen eighty six. Of the Fort Chipewayan Indians
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  Speaker 1: between twenty and thirty staffed to death last winter, and
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  Speaker 1: a death of many more was hastened by want of
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  Speaker 1: food and by famine diseases. Many other Indians, Crees, Beavers
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  Speaker 1: and Chipewayans, at almost all points where there are missions
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  Speaker 1: or trading posts, would certainly have staffed to death but
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  Speaker 1: for the help given them by the traders and missionaries
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  Speaker 1: at those places. It is now declared by the signers
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  Speaker 1: of the memorial that scores of families, having lost their
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  Speaker 1: heads by starvation, are now perfectly helpless, and during the
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  Speaker 1: coming winter must either staff to death or eat one
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  Speaker 1: another unless help comes. Heartrending stories of suffering and cannibalism
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  Speaker 1: continued to come in from what was once the Buffalo Plains.
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  Speaker 1: If ever thought less people were punished for their reckless improvidence,
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  Speaker 1: The Indians and half breeds of the Northwest Territory are
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  Speaker 1: now paying the penalty for the wasteful slaughter of the
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  Speaker 1: buffalo a few short years ago. The buffalo is his
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  Speaker 1: own avenger to an extent his remorseless slayers. Little dreamt
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  Speaker 1: he ever could be. End of Section twenty six.