Anyone remember reading about the 1920s and 1930s when the Navajos had so many horses, goats and sheep that they denuded the land forcing the US government to step in and remove a large number of animals?
About that same time the US government had a No Hunting rule for the north side of the Grand Canyon. So many deer soon overgrazed the area that the US then had to massacre thousands of deer to save the land.
In the 20s and 30s no one knew much about conservation and it wasn’t just the Indians who over-grazed everyone did. What often happened was not selling off soon enough when drought hit and waiting and praying for rain that never came.