Buffalo Country   

As the nation expanded into the Louisiana Purchase during the first half of the 19th century the old constitutional compromise between slave-holding and free states began to crumble. New compromises were able precariously to hold the country together; but the situation exploded in the late 1850s in "Bleeding Kansas."

At the same time, of course, settlers were pouring into the midwest, displacing already several-times-displaced Indian tribes who depended heavily on the countless (or so it seemed) bison that freely roamed the plains. They were migratory animals, slowly following food and water in great seasonal waves. It became Federal policy to kill as many as possible of the big animals, which had the simultaneous advantages of protecting farms and settlements from the beasts, as well as driving away the tribes by eliminating the source of their food. Railroad politics and commercial tactics played right into this scenario, which enjoyed amazing success, eventually driving the buffalo (as the American bison was nicknamed) nearly to extinction; not to mention the Indians.