Progressives: American Buffalo - The Spirit of America:

As Buffalo were the lords of the prairie, Progressives were once the lamplighters of the dawn of a revolution that brought constitutional representative democracy. This constitution brought together ideas from enlightenment along with concepts found in tribal co-operative agreements of the The Constitution of the Five Nations - or - The Iroquois Book of the Great Law. In it, you will find close parallels to our Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches of government as originally described in our U. S. Constitution.

However, the Buffalo's fate following the creation of a nation was immediately in danger from tyranny and exploitation, paralleling the challenges faced by progressive ideals founded in co-operation, sustainability...

"To European settlers traveling across America’s Great Plains in the early 1800s, the prairie wind was a constant companion: a gentle whisper echoing across the vast sea of grass that carpeted the center of the North American continent. Sometimes, however, the rumbling of thunder could be heard in the distance, though no storm clouds could be seen. Then the ground would begin to tremble, and suddenly the astonished newcomers would be surrounded by a thundering herd of hulking animals that stretched further than the eye could see. The majestic welcoming committee made it clear that the settlers had, at last, arrived in the buffalo nation — a land where tens of million of American Bison held sway."

“The Indian was frugal in the midst of plenty,” says Luther Standing Bear, a member of the Lakota tribe. “When the buffalo roamed the plains in multitudes, he slaughtered only what he could eat and these he used to the hair and bones.”

Some U.S. government officials even promoted the destruction of the bison herds as a way to defeat their Native American enemies, who were resisting the takeover of their lands by white settlers. One Congressman, James Throckmorton of Texas, believed that “it would be a great step forward in the civilization of the Indians and the preservation of peace on the border if there was not a buffalo in existence.”

Soon, military commanders were ordering their troops to kill buffalo — not for food, but to deny Native Americans their own source of food. By 1880, the slaughter was almost over. Where millions of buffalo once roamed, only a few thousand animals remained. Soon, their numbers dwindled, with the largest wild herd — just a few hundred animals — sheltered in the isolated valleys of the newly created Yellowstone National Park (by Progressive President Teddy Roosevelt).

Now the buffalo are beginning to return and with it's return comes the rise a of a new political party, designed with the sole focus to undo what was once done, to rebalance the focus of the government on long term sustainable economy that provides for all, to challenge anyone that serves their own interests at the direct expense or direct risk to the public interests, to ensure that we play this game of capitalism by a set of rules that protect the players (the citizens) not the owners.

The Buffalo is the American Spirit, and as Progressives we shall return that Spirit to America.

By Billy McGee posted to our Facebook wall on July 14, 2010.