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Difficulty: MediumWestward Expansion and American Indians

"These men [buffalo hunters] have done more in the last two years, and will do more in the next year, to settle the vexed Indian question, than the entire regular army has done in the last thirty years. They are destroying the Indians' commissary; and it is a well-known fact that an army losing its base of supplies is disadvantaged... Send them powder and lead, if you will; but, for a lasting peace, let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated. Then your prairies can be covered with speckled cattle, and the festive cowboy..."
—Attributed to General Philip H. Sheridan, Address to the Texas Legislature, 1875

Which of the following was the most direct consequence of the developments described in the excerpt?

  1. A
    The strict adherence of the federal government to laissez-faire principles by refusing to subsidize Western infrastructure.
  2. The collapse of the Plains Indians' nomadic lifestyle and their forced relocation to reservations.Answer
  3. C
    The passage of legislation designed to legally protect communal tribal lands from encroaching white settlers.
  4. D
    The application of popular sovereignty to determine the borders of newly established Indian reservations.

Answer

The collapse of the Plains Indians' nomadic lifestyle and their forced relocation to reservations.
The correct answer is correct because the buffalo was the essential resource for the nomadic lifestyle of the Plains Indians. The destruction of the herds, facilitated by transcontinental railroads and commercial hunters, decimated the Native American economy and left them unable to resist military confinement, forcing them to relocate to reservations.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the stimulus to identify the central historical development described.
The excerpt advocates for the extermination of the buffalo to destroy the Plains Indians' source of subsistence and settle the 'Indian question.'
Analyzing the source allows the student to identify the ecological and economic pressure being applied to Native Americans.
2
Evaluate the impact of this development on the nomadic way of life of the Plains Indians.
The destruction of the buffalo herds eliminated the food, shelter, and cultural foundation of the Plains tribes.
This demonstrates the direct relationship between the destruction of the buffalo and the collapse of the Plains tribes' independence.
3
Identify the historical outcome of this ecological and economic collapse.
Unable to sustain their traditional nomadic lifestyle or resist military operations, the tribes were forced onto reservations.
This connects the ecological destruction to the federal policy of containment and the reservation system.

Key Concept

The destruction of the buffalo herds undermined the subsistence of Plains Indians, leading to the end of nomadic resistance and their forced relocation to reservations.
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Topics

Westward Expansion and American Indians

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