Hippo Meat Nearly Became an American Food Staple
I can understand that this was glossed over somewhat to focus on the quirky and bizarre rather than the grim. But here:<p>&gt; Bison <i>had become</i> nearly extinct<p>The use of the passive &quot;had become&quot; in the above is hiding a pretty important part of this story - the snippet below from <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ozarkbisons.com&#x2F;aboutbison.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ozarkbisons.com&#x2F;aboutbison.php</a> explains a bit more about what happened.<p>&gt; But the fur trade and other commodities from the Bison is only a small part of the story. The American government encouraged elimination of the Plains Indians&#x27; primary food source, the bison. The idea was to kill off the Buffalo to starve the Indians, force them into relatively small areas, or north into Canada – make their food source either scarce or non-existent. The results would be starvation and high infant mortality amongst the Indian populations that would pave the way west for European settlement and the start of the western beef industry<p>So they didn&#x27;t really just &quot;become&quot; nearly extinct, they were very deliberately eliminated in a sort of genocidal effort. Not saying people shouldn&#x27;t enjoy the story (because it <i>is</i> interesting after all), I just think this additional context is worth knowing.