After reading a few hundred pages of reports from the late 1800's, you get to believe the things written by the people who were actually there at the time are accurate reports. Their view of the widespread outright murder of the bison is uniform throughout the Great Plains. The reports and letters were from people who did not know each other, but none disagree that the slaughter was as reported.
There is clear evidence that the most recent writings about the Great Killing all try to minimize its importance, to shrink the numbers, and to make it more the Indians' fault and by-products of nature than any intent by the invading white men.
Reading books from the early 1870's give a picture that is more realistic and vastly different from the new, sanitized versions. Yes, it is alarming, and yes, that revisionism is going on to see the past through our current moral and political filters.
I wonder how secure those archived books are? If they were "accidentally" deleted, out past will be forever changed.
oh my gosh sir willymac, that last sentence is chilling and totally possible isn't it? well, I hope most things aren't that important to them to want to go back and change them but who knows these days?
blame it on the Indians! that sounds about right. idiots and morons.
Yep, it's the Indians' fault, according to PBS. ""American Indian tribes acquired horses and guns and were able to kill bison in larger numbers than ever before."
The Great Spirit must have told them to ignore their spiritual beliefs and go out and kill every animal they could find.
That is so patently untrue! But, it is what kids will find when they go to a "reliable source" for their research.
ha! yes sir that is insane! wow you had to step away at times when you were researching this stuff didn't you?
Yep, I got a bit agitated at times. Human misbehavior gets to me more easily than most other irritants.
I still can't flush the image of the freezing Indian woman and her two starving children trying to grab slaughterhouse offal from the pigs through a fence.
We have much in our history to be ashamed of.
Some things just ain't right, my friend.
sir willymac! good to hear from you on this fine Tuesday! what image are you referring to about the Indian woman?
The one created in my head that came from reading a description in the Extermination of the American Bison book (I believe it was that one). The workers in a slaughterhouse swept offal off the kill floor for the pigs to eat and would not let the Indians have any. I know it was different times and conditions were harsh, but the deliberate acts like that bothered me. Settlers wanted the Indians dead and how they got that way did not matter.
So much to be proud of in our ancestry! (sarc)
howdy again sir willymac! yes sir it is one of the worst mistakes our country ever made was the way we dealt with and treated the Indians and buffalo.