Buffalo: hunting and extermination (Edexcel GCSE History): Revision Notes

Buffalo: hunting and extermination

The importance of buffalo to Indigenous peoples

Buffalo were absolutely crucial to the survival of Indigenous peoples on the Great Plains. These massive herds provided everything needed for life - meat for food, hides for clothing and shelter, bones for tools, and even dried dung for fuel. The relationship between Plains Indians and buffalo had developed over centuries, creating a sustainable way of life that depended entirely on these animals.

In 1840, an estimated 13 million buffalo roamed across the Great Plains. This enormous population had sustained Indigenous communities for generations, with hunting practices that ensured the herds remained healthy and numerous. However, this ancient balance was about to be catastrophically disrupted.

The dramatic decline in buffalo numbers

The mathematical scale of this destruction is staggering: $\frac{13,000,000 - 200}{13,000,000} \times 100 = 99.998\%$

The speed of this collapse shows just how intensive and systematic the killing became, transforming from sustainable Indigenous hunting to industrial-scale extermination.

Methods of buffalo extermination

Railroad construction and habitat destruction

The expansion of railroads across the Great Plains played a major role in buffalo destruction. Railroad companies needed to clear buffalo from their tracks and supply their construction workers with fresh meat.

Railroad construction crews required constant food supplies, and buffalo provided an abundant source of fresh meat in the otherwise harsh frontier environment.

The railroads also divided the great buffalo herds, disrupting their traditional migration patterns. Buffalo habitat was further destroyed when settlers built towns, houses, and farms along railroad lines. Additionally, diseases spread by settlers' cattle and horses infected buffalo herds, causing further population decline.

Commercial hide hunting

The discovery in 1871 of a cheap and quick process for turning buffalo hide into high-quality leather transformed buffalo hunting into a highly profitable commercial enterprise. Before this breakthrough, white Americans had hunted buffalo mainly for their warm hides, which required long and skilful preparation. The new leather-making process meant that buffalo hides became extremely valuable, attracting professional hunters who could make substantial profits.

Professional hunters like William Cody (known as "Buffalo Bill") were employed by railroad companies to supply meat to construction workers and clear buffalo from railway lines. Between 1867 and 1868 alone, Buffalo Bill claimed to have killed approximately 4,280 buffalo, earning him his famous nickname.

Sport hunting and tourism

Railroad companies organised special excursion trains that brought tourists from eastern cities onto the Great Plains specifically to hunt buffalo for sport. These hunting expeditions were marketed as exciting adventures, allowing wealthy tourists to experience the "Wild West" and take home buffalo trophies. Unlike Indigenous hunting practices or even commercial hunting for hides, sport hunting often involved killing buffalo simply for entertainment, with much of the carcase left to rot on the plains.

Systematic destruction of grasslands

As white settlers established homesteads across the Plains, they destroyed the grasslands that buffalo depended upon for food. The settlers' cattle and horses competed with buffalo for grazing land, while farming operations converted prairie into agricultural fields. This habitat destruction made it impossible for buffalo herds to find adequate food sources.

Government policy and responsibility

The federal government actively encouraged buffalo extermination as part of its broader policy to control Plains Indians. Government officials and military leaders recognised that destroying the buffalo would force Indigenous peoples to abandon their traditional way of life and move onto reservations.

Early government policies had allowed tribes to leave reservations for hunting, but these permissions were banned in the late 1860s. This policy change was deliberately designed to encourage Indigenous peoples to adopt white American lifestyles and abandon their traditional buffalo-dependent culture.

Crucially, neither the federal government nor the army took any action to prevent or slow the buffalo extermination, despite understanding its devastating impact. In fact, many officials viewed the destruction of buffalo herds as beneficial because it would reduce Indigenous resistance to westward expansion and reservation policies.

White Americans generally supported and enjoyed buffalo hunting, seeing it as both profitable and exciting. The wealth generated from buffalo hides provided significant economic incentives for continued hunting, while the government's encouragement gave moral justification for the slaughter.

Impact on Indigenous peoples

The extermination of buffalo meant the complete destruction of traditional Indigenous ways of life on the Great Plains. Without buffalo, Plains Indians could no longer maintain their nomadic lifestyle, traditional hunting practices, or cultural ceremonies centred around these animals.

This forced Indigenous peoples to become dependent on government food supplies and move onto reservations, where they faced poverty, disease, and cultural suppression. The buffalo extermination was therefore not just an environmental disaster, but a deliberate strategy of cultural genocide that succeeded in breaking Indigenous resistance and independence.

Timeline of key events

• 1840: Approximately 13 million buffalo roam the Great Plains
• 1860s: Railroad construction begins dividing buffalo herds and disrupting migration patterns
• Late 1860s: Government bans tribal hunting expeditions off reservations
• 1867-1868: Buffalo Bill kills over 4,000 buffalo while working for Kansas Pacific Railroad Company
• 1871: New process discovered for cheaply converting buffalo hide to leather, making commercial hunting highly profitable
• 1870s-1880s: Intensive commercial hunting and sport hunting expeditions reach their peak
• 1895: Only around 200 buffalo survive from original population of 13 million

Remember!