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These men are unfazed by the macabre mountain that they’re posing with – an enormous mound of bison skulls, waiting to be ground up and turned into fertiliser. As many as 60 million bison used to roam from Canada to Mexico, with giant herds ruling the Great Plains, but they were hunted to the point of extinction as American settlers moved west and killed them for their hides and meat, or simply for sport. Slaughtering bison by the thousands was also a way of attacking the Native Americans, who used every part of the sacred animal for food, clothing, shelter, tools and fuel. By 1900, only a few hundred bison remained.
GETTY
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