Sermons

What was also nearly exterminated was the bison. The Plains people had been totally dependent on the animal. Without it?

Of the 3,700,000 buffalo destroyed from 1872 through 1874, only 150,000 were killed by Indians. When a group of concerned Texans asked General Sheridan if something should not be done to stop the white hunters’ wholesale slaughter, he replied: “Let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffalo is exterminated, as it is the only way to bring lasting peace and allow civilization to advance.” [Smithsonian Inst. In Brown, pg 265]

Eradication of the original religions here was also part of the reservation plan, and well-meaning Christian congregations could hardly wait to send missionaries and to build boarding schools.
Christianity was used as a weapon of conquest. It had served that role in the latter Roman Empire; it would do so now. There would be only three possible options for the Indians: Reject the new religion. Reject the old religion. Or seek to adapt in some middle ground. Soon the list was down to one option. Norman Jackson, a UCC minister remembers, “There are Indian folk alive in our churches today who recall being told that one cannot be both Indian and Christian at the same time. You must choose.” [Norman Jackson, New Conversations, UCC, p 53] As preached by frontier preachers, the point of the Christian gospel was that Indians must stop being Indians and become white people.

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