There are two versions: what they say was the reason (hides) and the real reason (to starve the ‘Indians’)
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Photo: A mountain of bison skulls in the Midwest during the mid-1870s
What they say (what they recorded retrospectively):
Between 1800 and 1900, American bison were hunted by American settlers who had a seemingly unquenchable bloodthirst for the animals.
Cross-country trains were packed with hunters who would aim at the bison from the windows and kill several in one go.
Once the bison were down, the hunters would get out, skin them, and cut out their tongues.
The remains of the bison were left to decompose in the hot sun.
Between 1872 and 1874, one railroad business shipped half a million bison hides east and eventually the bison population was almost decimated.
Their numbers dwindled to mere hundreds from what was estimated to be between 30-60 million.
This photograph captured the aftermath of the horrific slaughter.
It depicts a mountain of bison skulls in the Midwest during the mid-1870s.
Fortunately, conservationists, indigenous tribes, ranchers, and many more made a concerted effort to save the bison from extinction and today there are estimated to be 500,000 in the US.
The real reason for the mass slaughter (genocide):
The real truth is; the government thought if they kill all the Bison, the Indians would die from starvation. They hired Buffalo Bill Cody to kill the Bison. He didn’t shoot them, he stampeded them over cliffs. (The Indians switched over to farming) Later on, when the Indians didn’t die, they introduced Small Pox. (They gave them Small Pox infected blankets). The small Pox killed about 3/4 of all Indians. (The only time the U.S. military used germ warfare against anyone).
Source: various