Red Buffalo Research Paper

Words: 717
Pages: 3

In the late 1800’s, the near extinction of the buffalo, began, harmlessly enough, with the building of the Trans -Continental railroad where they were initially killed to provide food for the workers and supervisors. After completion of the railroad, they were also killed to keep them away from the tracks to avoid hitting them or being forced to stop and wait for them to cross. During the building of the railroad and the settling of families along the railroad, they encroached on the lands that were already occupied by the Plains Indians. They resisted, and in retaliation, the government began killing off the buffalo as a way to force the Indians off of their land and onto Reservations so they could be “Civilized”. Later, as the fad for wearing buffalo coats and hats …show more content…
John Fire Lame Deer, a Lakota holy man, wrote: The” buffalo gave us everything we needed. Without it we were nothing. Our tipis were made of his skin. His hide was our bed, our blanket, our winter coat. It was our drum, throbbing through the night, alive, holy. Out of his skin we made our water bags. His flesh strengthened us, became flesh of our flesh. Not the smallest part of it was wasted. His stomach, a red-hot stone dropped into it, became our soup kettle. His horns were our spoons, the bones our knives, our women's awls and needles. Out of his sinews we made our bowstrings and thread. His ribs were fashioned into sleds for our children, his hoofs became rattles. His mighty skull, with the pipe leaning against it, was our sacred altar…. When you killed off the buffalo you also killed the Indian--the real, natural, "wild" Indian” (Fire, 130). Forced on to reservations by people who wanted their land in the name of “civilization”, the Indians lost their culture, their history, and their way of