Those Damn Cows

I never would have thought that an animal that spends it's life just eating grass and sleeping would cause me so much distress. When I first moved out to South Dakota and The Rosebud Rez, I imagined wide open spaces and rolling hills. And there are plenty of them, but I didn't expect every square inch would be fenced in. There is not one place, except for towns and communities, where it's not fenced in. Every drive results in beautiful landscapes that are blemished with cows and wire fencing. I remember hearing somewhere that cows outnumber humans in South Dakota 3 to 1. I would bet its more than that - or atleast here in South Central SoDak.
I guess it's not necessarily the cows that bother me. I mean, they are harmless oafs that eat up the countryside. But, it's what that symbolize. Ranchers have come in to the Rez, bought the land from tribal members and just fenced off the reservation. They have kicked out the buffalo and replaced it with the cow. On the reservation there is more room for cows than for humans. Somehow, that seems backwards.
When I look out my car window and see the cows, I go through a mix of emotions. I naturally get disgusted from the greed of ranches with their 100,000 acres of grazing pastures. That's reservation land. We already squished the Lakota to tiny reservations, and now 75-90% of the land is owned by whites? But while I still hate what those ranches and cows have come to symbolize out here, I still eat beef every once in a while. While I don't buy meat at the grocery store, I will still eat meat when I am a guest or when I am out to dinner. So every time I watch those cows chewing their cud, I see my hypocrisy. Or everytime I chomp down on a burger.
Damn... why do those harmless oafs have to taste so good?