BYE-SON

In the middle of the 19th century, right after we had slaughtered about 650,000 of each other in the American Civil War (ostensibly to free black slaves), we went on to turn our attention to the American Indian.     It is not known how many "Indians" lived on this land when Europeans arrived, but it was probably about 10 million. 

After the Civil War, those who remained in the military were sent to the great plains states.  The watch word of the day for them was, "Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone."  It became the intent of the government to either rid the country of American Indians or push them into reservations.  The plains and northern Indians used the American Bison for food, clothing, shelter, bedding, saddles, ropes, shields and other small articles.  The herds were vast and the Indians killed only what they needed.  It is estimated that 30,000,000 bison roamed our country in 1865 (yes, thirty million). 

Basically, we killed them all.  We killed most of the Indians and most of the bison.  The Indian population is below 2 million.  The bison were actually near extinction at one point.  Now there are thousands in government controlled herds in some of our Western states. 

It seems so foreign to me that we could take on such an endeavor right after the Civil War - but we did.  So much killing went on here in the 19th century.  In the 20th century, Americans were killed all over the world - Europe, Asian Pacific, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq.  Who or what will the Americans of the 21st century kill . . . and where will these Americans be killed?