Climate debate hearkens back to days of the bison

[XemaSab]

An old bison bone on my desk has me thinking about air pollution, climate change and the American mind.

You remember the basics from history class: Tens of millions of bison roamed the Great Plains. Along came Manifest Destiny and market hunters shot them for hides, tongues and just to get the great beasts out of the way.

In the decades after the Civil War, scientists like William Hornaday warned America: we were shooting bison into extinction.

A few folks paid attention – bold leaders with a head for science. Theodore Roosevelt, probably the most scientifically minded person ever to occupy the White House, tops the list.

http://www.hcn.org/blogs/range/climate-debate-hearkens-back-to-days-of-the-bison

[limpyhobbler]

1. kick

[BlueToTheBone]

2. More than that

it was to destroy the way of life of the Plains Indians and to enslave them.

[eppur_se_muova]

3. Absolutely. Saw an explicit contemporary quote on that, can't remember who though ... nt

[hatrack]

4. Phil Sheridan, then commanding the Dept. of the Missouri

"These men (the buffalo hunters) have done more to settle the vexed Indian question than the entire regular army has done in the last thirty years. They are destroying the Indians' commissary. Send them powder and lead if you will, but for the sake of a lasting peace let them kill, skin and sell until the buffalo are exterminated. Then your prairies can be covered with speckled cattle and the festive cowboy who follows the hunter as the second forerunner of an advanced civilization."

http://www.artsales.com/ARTistory/History_of_the_Buffalo/Philip_Sheridans_Command_1867_1883.htm

[phantom power]

5. "festive cowboy" ?

[eppur_se_muova]

6. That's the one, thanks !

I kind of knew it was a figure famous from the Civil War, but if I had tried to guess I would have gotten it completely RWOGN.