. Read the following excerpt below and answer the question that follows.

The Passing of the Buffalo and Buffalo Hunting

What is the author's purpose in writing the first passage?

Once, not long ago, the buffalo were everywhere. Wherever the people were, there were the
buffalo. They loved the people and the people loved the buffalo. When the people killed a
buffalo, they did it with reverence. They gave thanks to the buffalo's spirit. They used every part
of the buffalo they killed. The meat was their food. The skins were used for clothing and to cover
their tipi's. The hair stuffed their pillows and saddlebags. The sinews became their bowstrings.
From the hooves, they made glue. They carried water in the bladders and stomachs. To give the
buffalo honor, they painted the skull and placed it facing the sun. Then the whites came. They
were new people, as beautiful and deadly as the black spider. The whites took the lands of the
people. They built the railroad to cut the lands of the people in half. It made life hard for the
people and so the buffalo fought the railroad. The buffalo tore up the railroad tracks. They
chased away the cattle of the whites. The buffalo loved the people and tried to protect their way
of life. So the army was sent to kill the buffalo. But, even the soldiers could not hold the buffalo
back. Then the army hired hunters. The hunters came and killed and killed. Soon the bones of the
buffalo covered the land to the height of a tall man. The buffalo saw they could fight no longer...

to persuade younger generations to fight the white man
to entertain while telling a story about the buffalo
to inform younger generations how the buffalo were killed
to persuade the reader to save the buffalo