America's lush and expansive grasslands covered approximately half of the continental United States. For thousands of years, they thrived and created rich soils, making way for an amazing ecosystem.  However, as the white settlers moved to America's grasslands, it severely devastated this ecosystem. Buffalo populations were decimated, grasslands were turned infertile, and the ecosystem developed problems that are still an issue to this day. Through western settling and the removal of Native American tribes from their homelands, the grassland ecosystem was devastated, and will likely never return to its full glory.

The removal of Native Americans and the settling of colonizers brought new, different, and damaging activity to the expansive grasslands. As the 19th century began, the push to move west was fueled by factors such as the availability of lond from Indian removal acts, manifest destiny, economic promise, and eventually, a railroad network. This brought agriculture to the grasslands, which have deep and fertile soil. As an article on the loss of the Native grasslands of America says: “Grasslands used to cover a large swath of North America before European settlement. When Europeans arrived, they quickly plowed up about half of the grasslands on the continent”(Guardian article).  Before Europeans arrived, Native Americans ruled these grasslands. They knew the importance of them, and how much diversity they held. Even after settlers first arrived, they continue to, even now, plow these thriving grasslands to create more farming land. Mono farming and urban sprawl have created a need for new farmland.  In 2018 alone, an area greater than Yellowstone was plowed, which is over 2.2 million acres. Monofarming is when farmers only plant one crop, which removes all nutrients in the soil in mere decades. When the farmland becomes unyielding, farmers plow new land. 

One solution to monocropping, which has been used for hundreds of years, is called intercropping. This practice was used by the Native Americans, in which they planted different types of crops in the same place. This helped improve soil health and produce a robust crop yield. However, as Natives were removed, the Europeans failed to take notice of this practice and take lessons from them. During this time, monocropping started, devastating the soil in the grasslands. Why does it matter that lush grasslands continue to be torn up? Many reasons. 1) Thriving grasslands are large carbon sinks, which means they store lots of carbon that when the grasses are plowed, is released into the atmosphere, and when done on a large scale, it fuels climate change. 2) The grass in the prairies and their roots hold the soil, hedging against erosion in these ecosystems. 3) When expansive grasslands are torn up, it causes rapid decreases in native plant and animal populations. Regulating services are services the environment provides, but doesn’t need to. Bees pollinating crops is one example of a regulating service, another is nutrient cycles that help crops grow. Without biodiversity to give humans these “regulatory services”, it would cost an endless amount of money to replace these services and for humans to function in the way we do now. Another significant problem is urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is unrestricted growth over a large area of land without any regard to urban planning, resulting in inefficient use of space, which requires more space. According to a governmental environmental agency, it makes up 30% of lost land (See Appendix A). These urban areas are being built on farmland which requires more farmland to be plowed. The tillage of the grasslands causes irreparable damage to this ecosystem.

But it wasn’t only the tillage that damaged the ecosystem. “They [White Settlers] just killed and killed [Bison] because they liked to do that. When we hunted Bison we killed only what we needed” - Black Elk. The most devastating thing other than the plowing of the lush grassland itself that occurred was the devastation of the species. The most famous example of species decimation is the bison. In roughly 50 years, the bison population went from 40+ million to 325 wild bison left (See Appendix B). If we implement this decline in the current population of the United States (332 million) we would end up with less than 3,000 people in the entire  United States. Another species that not only came close to extinction but is now extinct, is the Passenger Pigeon. The Passenger Pigeon used to migrate over the grasslands. The Passenger Pigeon was thought to have had 3-5 billion in numbers and it took just 50 years of human over-hunting and habitat destruction to cause these birds to go extinct. This habitat destruction was due to the actions of plowing much of the expansive grasslands for agriculture when the white settlers moved in. The extinction of the Passenger Pigeon is arguably the most tragic and devastating species extinction in North America. Another species that had a massive population decline due to colonization was the prairie dog. Originally, according to NPS, they numbered over 5 billion, making their homes from Canada to Mexico. Today their habitat is 5% of what it was, devastated by hundreds of years of plowing for agriculture. This loss of habitat also left 40% of prairie dog species endangered/threatened. Settlers believed prairie dogs were carriers of diseases that could kill their cattle and ruin grazing areas. It was discovered that prairie dogs can neither take enough grass to affect grazing areas nor carry diseases to spread into cattle. However, this news came too late, and settlers poisoned and recreationally hunted prairie dogs, greatly decreasing their population numbers. Yet another animal that suffered was the Black Footed Ferret. Originally thought to have gone extinct, a small number of these animals were rediscovered. Their main prey is prairie dogs, and it takes 100 acres of prairie dog habitat to sustain 1 family of Black-Footed Ferrets, so as soon as the prairie dog population began to rapidly decrease, the Black-Footed Ferrets suffered too. Many other species were endangered by western expansion and habitat loss. These include but are not limited to the Pronghorn, the Greater Sage Grouse, and the Mountain Plover. White settlers and western expansion not only caused a loss of the natural grasslands but also devastated many of the species that called this beautiful ecosystem home.

In the past, the thriving grasslands have been ruined by a loss of species and untouched land. However, change is being made, and as the U.S. and other countries look to make conservational and climate policies to protect these special and delicate ecosystems, they should take inspiration from the Native Americans. Before white settlers, the grasslands were ruled by the Native Americans, protecting the lands for many generations to come. One policy that the Iroquois Native American Tribe had was that “decisions we make today should result in a sustainable world seven generations into the future”(7th generation ). This is called the Seventh-Generation Principle. Native Americans consciously thought far into the future, shaping their actions in the present. Climate change policies should recognize that we are not just trying to protect things around us for today, but for the future, so we can conserve the planet for thousands of years to come. Another thing that Native Americans believed in was the idea of life being a circle. The sun rose and set in a circle, the sky was a circle, the birds nest in a circle, and their teepees were round like a circle. They believed that we must work with nature, and live in harmony with it, by making things a circle, as they naturally are. Climate policies should not only protect nature but connect people with it. If people are connected to nature and live with it, we will have a much better world. As Chief Seattle said, “We are but one thread within it [life]. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect”(Xavier). The Native Americans long ago made the connection that if you hurt the environment, you hurt yourself. In this way, they made their actions deliberate and thought out. They would only kill as many animals as they needed, taking no extra, preserving the environment around them. White settlers did not take a moment to consider that what they were doing would impact them negatively. Countries, especially the United States, looking to make new climate policies should take note of Native American practices. They took care of the land and were proud stewards, maintaining a pristine and sustainable environment. If we follow Native American ethics, we will be more connected with nature, and be more mindful of preserving the environment for future generations.

The American lush and expansive grasslands used to cover the entire Central United States, going on as far as you could see. Over thousands of years, a rich ecosystem with lots of diversity and amazingly rich soil developed. When white settlers moved west, kicking out the Native Americans, they began rapidly destroying the grasslands. They plowed lands to no end and planted crops all over, rapidly draining the nutrients from the soil. They hunted out many of the native species to the grasslands, either bringing them to extinction or close to it. Now, as policies are being made, we should look towards the Native Americans. As Robert Swan said, “The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it”.

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