This animal was the main staple of the Plains Indians economy

For hundreds of years, plentiful buffalo provided economic subsistence for the Plains Indians — until the U.S. government put an end to it in the mid-1800s. In order to force the plains tribes onto reservations, the government set out to remove their primary food source — in other words, to starve them into compliance. It worked. By the end of the 19th century, buffalo had been hunted to near extinction.

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