Native American Decline Quotes
Sheridan was essentially right. With the Bison no longer available for hunting, the plains Indians had to depend on agriculture and settle on reservations or assimilate and integrate into white society. There was no specific policy to destroy the great buffalo herds, but the railroads allowed meat and the hides to be shipped East and sold for large profits for the companies who organized hunters and paid well for the buffalo. The overhunting and lack of any conservation principles soon led to the disappearance of the herds and almost made the Bison extinct. Today, we have built up some herds and they are being raised like cattle again providing meat and hides for man’s use. It is too bad that these techniques were not known then, as that could have been a terrific industry for the Indians although ranching was contrary to their then existing culture.
The white Europeans had over centuries built up immunity to some of the worst infectious diseases but when they first landed in the New World brought smallpox and other deadly diseases to which the Indians had no immunity.
Clinton was a founder of the society. Many sophisticated Americans were in despair about the consequence of White contact with the Indian, and this was even before the worst of the treatment which came later, beginning under the presidency of Andrew Jackson and continuing well into the 20th century. Of particular interest is Clinton’s prescient observations regarding Africa and Africans interacting with whites with slavery the overriding white motive. Clinton was one of the many Americans who were abolitionists from the beginning of the nation.
