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March 22, 2007
I've never shot a buffalo
I realize that the current trend is to blame all of the world’s ills – past and present - on white American males. No doubt, white American males have made their share of mistakes, some horrific and will, human nature being what it is, continue to make mistakes in the future. There is also no doubt that many a grade-schoolers history book glossed over some of those mistakes and omitted accomplishments of those who were not white American male.
However, as the pendulum swings way too far in the opposite direction, it is worth remembering that black Africans captured and sold other black Africans into slavery, that American Indians raided, raped and tortured other American Indians and that the world has gone through long periods of global warming and global cooling, even before SUV’s, and President Bush.
I am reminded of this because this week (March 26), Time magazine is running a long article on the return of Bison. Bison are making a comeback (numbering almost 450,000 currently) after having dropped from a high of close to 30,000,000 to a low of only 1,000 living bison. There explanation of the near extinction of bison starts with….
“The answers to these questions must begin by correcting a misapprehension: that the 19th century white man’s greed for hides and virtual policy of genocide toward Native Americans led to the extermination of tens of millions of bison.”
The article goes on to explain that a freak cold snap (almost certainly the result of conservative environmental policies) killed off millions of bison, as did Indians when they started to ride horses and use rifles – along with the damage caused by non-Native Americans.
The sad part of this is that the magazine had to open with a disclaimer that - SURPRISE -– it wasn’t all white American males that caused something perceived as bad to happen. The assumption of the writer had to be that the reader would intuitively know that white American males must have caused it is disturbing, but not surprising. Let’s hope the pendulum has swung about as far as it’s going to go and we can begin to achieve some balance in our views of history.
The phrase "white man's greed", should probably have been more properly been written as "newly arrived immigrants to the North American plains" as some of those who hunted the American bison (or buffalo) were non-whites and a few were female.
However, the massive slaughter of bison for their hides WAS a reality of the 19th century fashion world. The specific U.S. military tactics of depriving the Native American population of the buffalo as a resource for food and clothing to force them onto reservation WAS a fact AND so was the Native American technology advancement to horse and rifle in hunting. ALL ARE FACTS of the near demise of the bison. So are other facts like changes in the great plains environment like displacement of native grasses with European grasses which was a major factor in winter die offs of the animals, competition with cattle herds for grazing, barbed wire and railroad disruption of migration patterns, etc.
I don't know if it was mentioned in the article, but the American bison was basically an ice age animal with few natural predators. So, its large size, plentiful number and disposition made a pretty easy target that could be approached and killed up close and even be shot for sport from moving trains as its great herds stood near the tracks - basically a sitting duck! (It could be dangerous - and still is - if approached too closely especially on foot. This is something today's tourists who want to pet or feed them sometimes sadly discover.)
A point about how history is written: while no one history book is going to cover every topic in great detail, I do remember a story entry in my high school history book about Nathaniel Bedford Forrest which talked about his great leadership as a civil war cavalry officer, but never made mention his important postwar leadership of the Ku Klux Klan. Such an omission can stand out - especially to a young student growing up in the 1960s and learning about social justice in school.
It seems history books, magazines and newspapers can and must be selective. Scholars are right to argue about what is important and to be included. To talk about what has been left out is often the purpose of the publication of OTHER history books, magazines and newspapers.
Posted by: Garibaldi at March 22, 2007 11:19 AM