Pile of Bison skulls in the 1870’s. They were killed by hunters who were paid by the U.S. government.
“How many of you know the actual context behind this picture? It’s one they certainly don’t teach you in school. The U.S. Army promoted the wholesale extermination of bison herds in order to defeat the Native Americans, as bison were their main food supply. The U.S. government actually paid a bounty for each bison skull recovered. A section of the Royal Museum of Alberta in Canada has a small section dedicated to this, with this very picture.” (Source)
Throughout the 1800’s the North American Bison were hunted to such an extreme that their numbers declined from tens of millions to under less than one thousand.
You can see the pile is in front of a processing plant (it’s in the background). Bison bones were ground up into bone meal fertilizer or charred to make bone black, a substance with several uses (one is refining sugar, bone black can be used to absorb impurities and help give the sugar it’s white color).
I hope to be remembered for my atrocities! 
Reblogged this on Mungai and the Goa Constrictor and commented:
Nothing much has changed then!
December 21, 2013 at 1:54 am
Oh, my, I have never heard of this. How evil a past my country has.
December 21, 2013 at 2:42 am
Country still is evil
April 2, 2014 at 2:51 am
Reblogged this on Beacon of Aquarius.
December 21, 2013 at 3:59 am
I call B.S. Why would they ship a bunch of heads to one place to make fertilizer? How do we know this isn’t outside a slaughter house and those heads aren’t cow/steer heads?
I get that we wiped em out, and that we paid bounties on heads, I just don’t think this pic makes sense.
April 9, 2015 at 9:59 pm
you’re ignorant, bone crushed into bone meal is a perfect fertilizer and what exactly doesn’t make sense about the picture? the population of bison dropped millions and if you can’t tell the difference in dimension between a steer head and that of a bison then that means you aren’t qualified..?
June 30, 2015 at 8:53 pm
What do you call b.s. on? there is so much evidence just tell me what confuses you and I will send you to factual evidence
June 30, 2015 at 8:55 pm
I ate all the wild steers, you have heard of wild steers haven’t you, there you go
September 15, 2016 at 4:10 am
I ate all the steers, you heard of wild steers haven’t you there you go
September 15, 2016 at 4:12 am