Final answer:
The destruction of buffalo herds led to the devastation of the Native American way of life on the Great Plains, as the bison were essential to their cultural and economic survival, resulting in forced relocation, conflict, and cultural transformation.
Step-by-step explanation:
A result of the killing of the buffalo on the Great Plains was the destruction of the Native American way of life. The systematic extermination of the bison, a pivotal resource for the Plains tribes, alongside government policies and expansion of settlers, forcibly transformed Native American cultures. This was further aggravated by the government's efforts to confine Plains Indians to reservations and make them adopt agricultural lifestyles, which clashed with their traditional practices of hunting and roaming with the bison herds, leading to the Plains Wars.
The depletion of the bison herds was part of a broader scheme to leverage the Great Plains for commodity-based agriculture, connected to the national market by railroads. This decimation directly impacted Native American tribes whose economies and cultures were intricately linked to the bison, leading to conflicts like the Plains Wars and forced relocations onto reservations.