美洲野牛陈觉法

选编

美洲野牛是美国西部的象征，也是西部开拓者的象征。十九世纪中叶，广袤的美国西部平原上，生活着七千五百万至九千万头美洲野牛。十九世纪中期，北美殖民者大批西迁，开始了美国历史上的西部大开发时期。这些殖民者的到来，不但使土著印第安人的土地遭到掠夺、生灵遭受涂炭，也使得美洲野牛的生存环境受到了严重的破坏。到1875年，美洲野牛只剩下了数百头……

The 1800s were a time of great growth in the United States. As the East became more crowded， people packed up their wagons and moved westward. The West was the home of many groups of Native Americans， who had lived in North America for centuries. It was  also the home of the American bison， which soon became a symbol of the West for many Americans. Sadly， the bison also became a symbol of a way of life that was destroyed by the white pioneers who settled in the rugged（畸岖的） West.

During the 1800s， bison roamed （徜徉） in huge herds all over North America. In 1855， the number of bison was from 75 million to 90 million. But by 1875， there were fewer than one thousand bison left. In just twenty years， a huge number of bison had been almost   completely wiped out.

The first people traveling west were      amazed at how many bison roamed the  country. One American army officer described standing on high ground in central Kansas. He said that the land as far as he could see was covered with the huge shaggy （長满粗毛的） animals making their way across the plain.

Before white settlers moved westward， Native Americans hunted bison with bows and arrows for food and many other uses. They killed only many animals as they needed.

When the white settlers came， they brought guns. They killed bison for meat and hides， but they often killed more than they needed. Some settlers killed as many bison as they could. They killed the bison because the animals caused so much trouble for them. The bison ate the grass the settlers needed for their own animals. And bison often ate the crops the settlers were trying to grow. Large herds of  bison could knock down fences and even small buildings.

Some of the bison hunters were not   settlers. They were meat and hide hunters who killed bison to supply U. S. army troops and railroad workers. And some bison hunters were sportsmen. These people hired guides who knew the West. The guides would take the hunters to the bison herds.

The hunters would kill as many bison as they could with their rifles. On a hunt one sportsman might kill two thousand bison. A few would be taken back so that their heads could be stuffed （填塞） and hung on the sportsmens walls. But most of the dead animals would be left on the plains. Settlers would sometimes collect wagonloads of bison bones to sell. The bones could be used as fertilizer or made into such items as buttons and combs.

As the bison were destroyed， so was the Native Americans way of life. Without their main source of food， many tribes were forced to move to reservations（保留地）. There， the U. S. Army provided food for them. But the Native Americans were no longer free.

The bison， often called buffalo， became a symbol of the west. The most famous use of this symbol is on the buffalo nickel（鎳币）. This popular coin is no longer made.

The buffalo nickel was designed by an American sculptor （雕刻家） named James Earle Fraser. During the 1870s and 1880s，  Fraser lived as a boy in the western Dakota  territory， in what is now South Dakota. Fraser later wrote about his life on the prairie（草原）and created statues that showed things and people of the West. One of his statues is The Buffalo Prayer. He created this statue from a boyhood memory： He had seen a Native American medicine man praying to the Great Spirit for the return of the buffalo.

Comprehension Check：

1. When was a time of great growth in the U.S.？

2. How many bison were there in 1855？

3. Why did the settlers kill bison？

4. How many bison were left in 1875？

5. Why did many tribes of the Native Americans moved to reservations？

6. What does the article mainly tell us？