I think this is the photo of a buffalo genocide done so that the natives couldn't rely on them as a food source, and thus forcing them into starvation or submission...
Oh my God... You just made me realize that that's what this was for. I've seen these pictures in text books when I was a kid, and uncritically accepted the explanation that it was 'pioneers found an easy food source and some thought it was funny to shoot an animal that didn't have the sense to run away...'.
Hence why it's called a genocide against the native people, a deliberate destruction of a specific people's primary food source is defined as a genocidal act. I went to pretty 'progressive' schools in the US and it was still mostly framed as a "oh, we fought them a bit but they kinda just got sick and died, it wasn't like a lot of people were trying to eradicate them."
Oh my God... You just made me realize that that's what this was for. I've seen these pictures in text books when I was a kid, and uncritically accepted the explanation that it was 'pioneers found an easy food source and some thought it was funny to shoot an animal that didn't have the sense to run away...'.
Hence why it's called a genocide against the native people, a deliberate destruction of a specific people's primary food source is defined as a genocidal act. I went to pretty 'progressive' schools in the US and it was still mostly framed as a "oh, we fought them a bit but they kinda just got sick and died, it wasn't like a lot of people were trying to eradicate them."