Wild & Jag April 2020

William Tecumseh Sherman and General
Philip Sheridan.
War between the Indians and the American cavalry
was not an easy campaign and the Americans were unable
to gain the upper hand. It was cleverly determined by
General Grant, however, that the Americans would never win
the war while the abundant bison continued to provide the
Indians with all their needs. He issued an instruction, therefore,
that the cavalry should focus its efforts on eliminating
the bison. But that was also far too great a task for the horse
soldiers.
General Sherman took Grant’s idea one step further,
and is credited with having generated what became the final
solution to the Plains Wars. He is reported to have “floated a
trial balloon”. In other words, he remarked casually, in general
conversation, “that the quickest way to compel the Indians
to settle down to civilized life was to send ten regiments of
soldiers to the plains with orders to shoot buffaloes (bison)
until they became too scarce to support the redskins”. This
was a proposal that was, apparently, tacitly accepted as
“a good idea” by the public. But it was also an expensive
solution.
Nevertheless, Sherman’s idea itself was modified. It
became an open invitation to every Tom, Dick and Harry (on
the East Coast), who could use a rifle, to visit the prairies –
travelling on the ever-advancing railway system, and there
(on the prairies) to shoot as many bison as they could find.
In compensation for their efforts, they were authorised to
sell the bison’s very valuable hides to tanneries on the East
Coast, transported there by train. The meat would be left to
rot out on the plains.
This became the ultimate war solution of choice. It cost
the government nothing at all; it “ticked all the boxes” for
stopping the war and it brought the Prairie Indians to heel.
And very soon the prairies were filled with horse-drawn
wagons taking the settlers and their possessions ever more
“west”. Horses, cattle, sheep and goats filled the “space” left
by the near extinct bison, and new crops were grown where
none had been seen before.
Finally, whenever surviving bison were seen by the settlers,
they were shot for food, for their hides, and/or because
they competed with the settlers’ domestic stock for grazing.
So, the new settlers also made a contribution to the near
demise of the bison.
By the end of the 18 th century, fewer than 400 wild bison
remained – and that is how the “Great American West” was
won.
When read in its entirety, this story is a far cry from
“trigger-happy gunmen blasting the bison population into
oblivion”. The bison slaughter was carried out by government
decree and it was supervised by the US cavalry.
What we must never forget is that the bison slaughter
was carried out according to a government decree, and it
was considered necessary in order to bring the American
Prairie Indians to heel.
The slaughter was carried out (in the end) mainly by
civilians under the overall supervision of General Grant and
Generals Sherman and Sheridan. It was not a haphazard affair
and it took over four decades of intense effort to execute.
And that is how the
American “West” was tamed.
2) THE PASSENGER PIGEON
This pigeon was especially
adapted to the continuous,
deciduous forests that had once
clothed the entire Eastern
Seaboard states. By the turn off the
century (1900), however, these forests
had been almost totally replaced with
open, agricultural farmland. So, it was change in
habitat that saw the demise of the passenger pigeon.
With apologies to Ms Sellers, hunters (trigger-happy
gunmen) and hunting had practically nothing to do
with either of these events! And because Ms Sellers will
be quoted by “trigger-happy anti-hunters”, we need to
correct the false impressions she created.
Postscript: During the 20 th century, another casualty of
expanding agriculture was a major decline in North America’s
waterfowl populations. Most of North America’s waterfowl
migrate to the Canadian Arctic in the summer to breed,
and they return on their autumn migration to the south, when
snow threatens to engulf the land. The anti-hunter animal
rightists (and the press) blamed the certain fact of declining
waterfowl populations on overshooting by duck hunters, but
that was not the case at all. The problem was that all along
the three migration routes, farmers had been draining the
swamps and marshes, converting them to dry-land fields for
growing wheat and maize. So, the ducks and geese found
that their traditional (stepping stone) daily journeys (between
different and once pond-rich areas of habitat) had all disappeared.
They could therefore not feed themselves or rest
along the continent-long migration routes, and many of them
died in transit.
This is a long story (the story of Ducks Unlimited) that
cannot be told here and now. Suffice it to say that it is so
easy just to blame the hunter for wildlife declines, even
though the real reasons are often very easy to explain.
Hunters should be warned to be vigilant about false accusations,
and we should fight what is today called “fake news”
whenever we can.
In the next issue we will look at the South African experience.
All the information contained in this article, relating to
America’s history (including actual artefacts), can be found
in a museum in the basement of the Department of the
Interior Building in Washington DC, USA.
Note from the editor’s desk
Don’t forget to look up Ron Thomson’s website:
www.ronthomsonshuntingbooks.co.za. And be warned: There
are now less than 50 full sets (seven books) of his unique Big
Game Hunting Memoir series left. I would suggest that you
order a full set NOW before they are sold out. You are also
welcome to contact Ron directly at mahohboh@mahohboh.org.
50 GAME & HUNT APRIL 2020