Plains Were Covered With Dead Bison Summary

It is a well-known fact that the Indigenous people of the Western world were the first inhabitants of North America. As they have lived there long before a calendar system was in place, it is evident that today’s society has a way of life that is much more simple, casual, and straightforward when compared to the Indigenous people’s way of life, as in their age, they did not have the accessible supermarkets that we have today for food, clothes, and utilities. Their way of getting those necessities were to work for it in a much different way than we do. While people of today work as bankers or doctors, the Indigenous people of North America hunted and gathered their supplies. Although that is not to say that today’s careers and jobs are easy,

For thousands of years, the Indians have hunted buffalo, and they were under the influence that they would remain in their lands as long as they do not overhunt them. Luther Standing Bear wrote a short story in 1928 based on his experience with the bison called “The Plains Were Covered with Dead Bison”, he specifically states how the white people took the gifts from their Creator: “These people were taking away the source of the clothing and lodges that had been provided for us by our Creator, and they were letting out food lie on the plains to rot.” Of course having their source of food, clothing, and shelter snatched from them was an awful act, and a truly sorrowful moment, but most importantly, it was also disrespecting and depressing moment for them culturally and spiritually. Standing Bear wrote this story in order to get people from his present and future to understand how significant and important the bison meant to them, and how the mass murder of the buffalo affected everybody, whether that was for the good (Europeans) or the bad (Indigenous people). Even after all the suffering and disrespect, Standing Bear states that his tribe and people did not murder the Europeans or go down to their level: “These people cared nothing for us, and it meant nothing to them to take our lives, even through starvation and cold. This was the beginning of our hatred for the white people. But still we did not kill them.” Even though Luther Standing Bear specifically states that his people hated the white people, they did not kill them for that reason. This shows how noble and righteous Standing Bear and his people were, while the white people were the main cause of their deaths from starvation and freezing, the Indigenous people still held themselves back, and did not mirror the European people’s bloodthirsty acts of