A number of factors contributed to the near-extinction of the bison, but foremost among them were Union generals William T. Sherman and Phil Sheridan. In an effort to “pacify” western Native Americans, they advocated the destruction of the bison as a way to take away the Native Americans’ main food supply. With no wild bison available, the various tribes would have to relocate to newly established reservations.
“I think it would be wise to invite all the sportsmen of England and America . . . this fall for a Grand Buffalo hunt, and make one grand sweep of them all,” Sherman wrote to Sheridan in 1868.
Sheridan, for his part, was delighted by the approach. “If I could learn that every Buffalo in the northern herd were killed I would be glad,” he wrote. “The destruction of this herd would do more to keep Indians quiet than anything else that could happen, except the death of all the Indians.”
As a man-made ecological event, the scale of bison slaughter was unprecedented. There were so many dead animals that carcasses were usually left to rot where they lay once they were skinned for their hides, which made a convenient alternative to traditional leather from cows.
