What if the native peoples of the Great Plains adopted sheep herding from the Navajo, how would the US government subdue them? With sheep, the tribes wouldn't be dependent on hunting buffalo for food, there would be no point in the buffalo massacre.
The US government rounded up the Navajo farmers and slaughtered their sheep, forcing them onto reservations. But a horse riding nomadic people on the Plains would be hard to pin down. They would simply move on with their mobile food stock and return after the army leaves, rather like the Mongols. Would adopting the sheep in addition to horses alter their outcome?