Henry Hathaway / Director of Westerns / Part 7
Continued …
Before 1800 scientists estimate there were 60,000,000
buffalo/bison on the North American plains.
The Buffalo / Bison has been around for a long time. The cave painting (from France) above is believed to be about 10,000 years old.
The ancient hunters would never have dreamed about wiping all of them out.
Yet it only took a mere fistful of white hunters less than 50 years to slaughter the North American buffalo to near extinction.
And it was done deliberately.
The simple plan was to force the Natives onto the Reservations by killing off their food source.
Thus opening up the West for settlement. (Civilization?)
Buffalo hunting still goes on today. It’s a bit controversial as you might imagine – as some ‘hunts’ amount only to shooting a Buffalo standing in a field or pasture – for a fee. There are other hunting formats however (Bow, Crossbow, period Firearms … ) and most any real hunter would insist on a greater experience. Myself, I’m against Trophy Hunting, but not conventional hunting whereby the meat would be taken and used.
Myself, I don’t hunt and I own no firearms or weapons.
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Henry Hathaway / Director of Westerns / Part 7 continued …
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An absolute disaster.
Stunning isn’t it? Hard to believe. Genocide.
Growing up, I hunted for food – only. I got rid of all my guns when I came back from the Army. I never could stand trophy hunting. Nice post about a terrible time.
I really didn’t know some of the history surrounding this. I was surprised about it. I did enjoy shooting when I was a kid, but it just fell away as I got along. I always wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea to have a gun around the house? And if I’d had kids, I think I would have been inclined to instruct them in basic gun handling.