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after the U.S. Civil War resolved the conflict between the South and the North

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United States turned its sights to the West

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1867 Indian Peace Commission

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under the leadership of Major Joel Elliot

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signed treaties with the Cheyennes, Plains Apaches, Comanches, Arapahos, and Kiowas

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major reservations were established in present-day South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Arizona

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1860 to 1890 reservation lands came under extreme pressure from white settlers, leading to increased conflict

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at the edge of this pressure were

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the cattlemen

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land speculators

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moved into and used these perceived-to-be vacant territories

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bison

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newly arriving Americans and Europeans moved into the West

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bison were important for sustenance for meat and hides for the indigenous survival

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Comanche populations

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the arrival of photographia captured images of Comancheria

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not just military pressure on the Comanches

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ecological pressure as well

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the effect on the bison would in turn have an effect on the indigenous people

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the Comanches would have decreasing access to this important ingredient for their own survival

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a clash between industrial peoples and nomadic peoples

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the assault on the bison took on industrial proportions for industrial ends

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became a war of humans against animals fought with industrial weapons

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conducted on a mass scale

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because there was rising demand for hides for industrial consumption

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hides were important because it was out of hides that you got leather belts

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not the kind of leather belts that people wear, but leather belts to drive large machines

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between 1850 and 1900 the price of leather doubled

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and while the demand for leather rose, so did the supply, since the large bore rifle was developed during this time

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delivered greater accuracy and ballistic impact from a longer distance

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so that you could perforate the thick hide of a bison and bring the animal down

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hunting expeditions, if you can call them that, were systematically organized, and bison were slaughtered in the millions

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hunters took down as many bison as they could

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left them lying in the fields to die

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and continue following the herds to take down as many as he could

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1878: 40,000 buffalo hides

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Orlando Brown felled 6,000 bison in two months

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small armies of men would move out into the plain pursuing the animals

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by the 1880s the bison were almost extinct

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Indians waged mostly futile resistance

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Cherokee faced starvation

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cities would emerge on the Great Plains to transform them

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Chicago became gateway to the American West

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cattle ranching took the place of the bison

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commodity production

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shipped to meat slaughter houses in Chicago

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1906 "The Jungle" - Upton Sinclair

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the land was being inducted into a more global system

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Chicago became the bovine capital of the world