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When you look at this taxidermized American buffalo head, you see ecological destruction of Native American life, brought about through the exchange of European ecology and economic technologies and how this destruction warns of our own unstable exploitation of nature. The Great Plains Indian’s means of gathering food changed from a balanced hunting and gathering of many food sources to one subsisting predominantly off of the buffalo. The hunting technology of the horse enabled Native Americans to subsist alone on the buffalo, with trade supplementing other needs. When the industrial revolution, railroads, and Manifest destiny, can into euroamerican culture, the new social ideal of capitalism incentivized Indians as well as frontiersmen to hunt the buffalo to near extinction. The massive destruction of 30 million buffalo in as little as 20 years, warns future people about the need to protect the balance in nature. If we don’t control or regulate our use of the worlds resources, a capitalist mindset results in massive destruction and devastation of life.

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By Matthew Sammartino