“Kill every buffalo you can! Every dead buffalo is an Indian gone.”
Near the end of the 19th century, this was the stated goal of the US government. At the time large swaths of Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado were still controlled by the Comanche, the last great Indian nation of the American Plains. The Comanche were brutal in their methods of war, and had absorbed many of their enemies well before the Europeans arrived. They had been successful at beating back the Mexican and Spanish armies and were confident they could do it again.
They were decentralized. They could navigate their territory more effectively, and could survive longer in the inhospitable areas of the high plains. They knew where to find water and where to hide. The Comanche owned and controlled thousands of horses, which made them wealthy. They were better horsemen than their enemies and could hit a target from 50 yards while riding at full speed. They had ways of fighting and terrorizing the encroaching frontiersmen that instilled fear in their enemy. No other nation had been able to defeat them, but they failed to recognize their greatest weakness. Their dependence on the buffalo.
The buffalo’s value among the Plains tribes, was priceless. Experts estimate that 60 million Buffalo freely grazed and cultivated the land. For centuries, they provided the people with everything from fly swatters to shelters. The native tribes followed the herds and only killed what they needed. Since the Buffalo were life-givers, the people carefully maintained a balance, never overkilling for sport, and only hunted for sustenance.
Generals William T. Sherman and Philip Sheridan believed that if the government could eradicate the Buffalo, the Indians would have no choice but to give up. He was quoted as saying, “Take away anything essential for the survival of a people, and they will surrender. As long as the Buffalo roamed the Plains, so did the Indians.” In a fifty-five-year period, from 1830-1885, soldiers, hunters, and settlers killed more than 40 million Buffalo.
The annihiliation of the buffalo led to the subjugation of the Comanche. They became wards and dependants of the state. They were moved onto reserves and their ways of living were not permitted. They were not allowed to hunt, and were forced to farm. They could not leave their reserve without permission, and were often provided with food that was not edible. The nations were broken and defeated, but this was still not enough. The government needed to destroy a generation. They needed to kill the Indian in every child.
“Kill the Indian in every child”
Residential schools were the means by which this task was undertaken. Children were taken from their homes and were taught that their beliefs were evil. That they were savages. They were meant to feel worthless, and were taught to hate who they once were. Through an instutional system of abuse and “re-education” the goal was to eradicate a culture of freedom, so that it could be replaced with one of servitude and obedience. The last of these schools in Canada was closed in 1996.
“Kill the liberty, control the man”
Like the first nations of the Great Plains, we are in a battle for the right to choose what kind of life we want to live. Our battle is not one that will be fought out in the open. We will not see the faces of our enemies. Today, our warriors are developers. Their horses are their hardware, their minds are their bows, and their code are their arrows. The protocols they build are the ancient paths that have always existed in the physical world. The paths that connect individuals, who freely transact in ideas and value, where their reputations are the most important currency. Reputations built upon their ideas, rather than their identities.
These paths are used to connect and protect our community. These paths guide us towards shelter, sustenance, and community. They enlighten, entertain, and enrich. Our communities are built on the values we share. Freedom, openness, critical thought, and the inherent right to challenge the ideas of others. It is our job as individuals to protect these paths, to promote these paths, and to welcome newcomers and refugees from the old system.
Like the Comanche, the protocols and networks we build have weaknesses. They have points of failure that can be exploited. We have dependencies, just as the Comanche were dependent on the buffalo. Those in power have been relentless in their attempts to starve us into submission. They have attacked our networks through policies related to energy, self custody, KYC, and privacy. Great technical minds and efforts have been devoted to protecting our “buffalo”. Bitcoin has been tested many times and has proven itself to be resilient, but they will continue to poke and prod until they find our “buffalo”.
Luckily, I don’t believe our children will have to undergo the same overt physical and mental abuse of residential schools. However, we need to ask ourselves what values are being instilled in our children? Are they being taught to value privacy? Are they being taught to value freedom of expression, without fears of being canceled? Are they being taught how economies function, or the misery communism has caused throughout the world? Are they being taught to demand control over their data, to be free, and sovereign, or are they being indoctrinated into a state where they are passive participants in a system predicated on dependency? Are they being taught to put in the work to create and build things of value, or are they being taught to sell themselves in the most “clickable” way to garner attention and eyeballs. The more extreme and abhorrant the act, the more successful one can be.
If you want to know what the goals of those in power are, observe how they treat their children. Listen to what they are being taught. Dictators and the purveyors of tyranny know that if they want to control the future, they need to control the children. We are just begining to wake up to the fight for control over the values and beliefs that are taught to our children. The values and beliefs that will be fought over, well after we are dead.
We can not underestimate what those in power are prepared to do, and we can not ignore their ability to convince others to do the same. 60 million buffalo once roamed the great plains of North America, which were followed and hunted by a nation of warrios, who were resilient and self sufficient. They were sovereign, they land and weapons, but their enemies had bigger weapons.
Our warriors are stronger, our protocols are better, our communities are fortified by a system of truth, but we need to be ready for the battles that lay ahead. It is our stories, our ideas, and our ability to communicate that will win this war, because we are all on the reserve now.