Great Plains Indians
What are the advantages of using horses?
1. Could hunt better by riding after buffalo and use bow and arrows to hunt. 2. Could cover more distance in a short time and still return to camp quickly. 3. Expanded hunting grounds because of the greater distances covered. 4. Sedentary tribes such as Cheyenne coud now become nomadic because of the mobility of suing horses.
How did tribes use the land/ environment?
1. Earth/trees for lodges 2. Buffalo and trees for tepees 3. Trees for travois 4. Land for farming 5. Buffalo for tepees, food, clothes, shelter
What were the disadvantages of using horses?
1. Other tribes now moved into the Plains to hunt. 2. People stole horses or traded them away for other goods. 3. This led to territory and property disputes or even war.
What are cultural practices of the Plains tribes?
1. Sedentry and nomadic lifestyle 2. Use travois for carrying goods 3. Powwow celebrations 4. Hunters and farmers 5. Used horses for hunt, travel and trade
What did the Plains tribes have in common?
1. Universal sign language 2. Artwork made of feathers and beads 3. Decorated hides 4. Clans of warriors 5. Last group of Native Americans to resist white settlers
About buffalo
6 feet tall, weighs as much as 10 people Poor eyesight Fast runners
What is a travois?
A dog-drawn sled; nomad tribes used them to carry supplies
How did the different tribes communicate?
Developed universal sign language
What kind of houses did sedentary tribes have?
Dome- shaped earth lodges (permanent).
What is the difference between Eastern woodland tribes and the Plains tribes?
Eastern tribes were sedentary. They farmed and could build permanent houses. Plains tribes were nomads and followed their food source.
Where did the Great Plains Indians live?
From just north of Canadian border down south to Texas; eastern grasslands from Mississippi River west to foothills of Rocky Mountains
What was the land and environment like for the Great Plains?
Grasslands, foothills, some trees, rivers and streams
How did nomad tribes use buffalo?
Meat/food, tent material, blankets, and clothing, horns for bowls an utensils, bladders for canteens, tails for whips, poo for fuel, also bartered (traded) with sedentary tribes for corn.
Buffalo hunt
Men on horseback yell at buffalo and get the, to run. They used bows and arrows to shoot the buffalo. Boys could hunt buffalo at age 10 and were expected to try, even if they didn't kill a buffalo at first.
Hunting buffalo
Old ways 1. Run them off cliffs 2. Were buffalo skin and pretend to be a lost baby buffalo so that an adult buffalo would come check 3. In both cases, the tribes would kill the buffalo with spears New way: ride on horseback and use bow and arrows
What were the two types of Great Plains tribes (hint: Based on lifestyles)
Sedentary and nomadic
What were the tribes of the Great Plains?
Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Mandan, Omaha, Osage
How were nomads able to travel?
Spanish settlers in Southwest brought horses in the 1500s. By 1700s, tribes used horses to hunt buffalo, travel, and trade
What types of homes did Plains tribes have?
Tepees (nomads) and earth lodges (sedentary)
What were nomad homes?
Tepees; had poles and covered them with buffalo skins to form tents; made it easy to travel
What is the land bridge theory?
The Ice Age exposed a land bridge that connected Russia to North America. Animals came across the land bridge and the nomad tribes followed, hunting their food source.
What was nomad life like?
They hunted buffalo in summer and fall. They carried everything, including their tepees and supplies, with them.
What is a nomadic tribe?
Think "n". Nomads never settle. They roam, usually following their food source because they are hunters, not farmers.
What is a sedentary tribe?
Think "s." sedentary tribes settle usually along river valleys. Because they settle, they can farm for corn, squash, and beans and build permanent houses.
What was the main thing that changed the Plains tribes' lifestyle?
Using horses to hunt buffalo
