Plains, Prairie, and Rocky Mountains

1
Plains,Prairie,and Rocky Mountains

• Plains Culture Area
• II

2
Basic Types of Plains Cultures

• Prior to re-introduction of the horse
• Two basic types
• Foot hunters
• Valley horticulturalists also hunting
• After re-introduction of the horse
• Three basic types
• Aboriginal hunters
• Hunters with farming origins
• Farmers with farming origins

3
Aboriginal Hunters

• Early groups i.e. Blackfoot
• Scheduled procurement
• Band social structure
• Gender division of labor
• Situational leaders
• Persuasive not coercive
• Status
• Achieved and often temporary

Transporting a ceremonial bag and tipi cover of a
Blackfoot military society. Military societies
had various important functions, including
regulating life in the camp and on the march.
Photo from Public Archives Canada.
4
Farmers With Farming Origins

• Sedentary Villagers
• Earthlodges
• Crops
• Maize, beans, squash,
• sunflowers, tobacco
• Summer hunts
• Specific subgroups
• Trade centers
• tribes from entire region
• LaVerendrye (1738)
• noted Mandan trade centers
• Matrilineal
• Stratified
• upper class and commoners

Artist rendition of Hidatsa earthlodges
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Hunters With Farming Origins

• Domino effect i.e. Crow, Cheyenne, Lakota etc.
• Some were originally the hunting groups
• Adapt to Plains Lifestyles
• Bison, nomadic, etc.Maize, beans, squash,
  sunflowers, tobacco
• Unilateral
• Inheritance from both mothers and fathers
  families
• Leadership
• ascribed and achieved
• informal to complex
• Sodalities
• non-kinship groups
• Status achieved through exploits

Crow Grass Dancers
6
Rocky Mountains

• Temporary use
• Basin, Plateau, Plains
• Permanent residents
• ie Sheepeater Shoshone (Tukadika)
• Adaptations to high mountain ranges
• Modifications made pre-horse
• Maintained ties to earlier economies
• Major groups
• Shoshone
• Ute
• Crow

The Sheep Eaters They adopted a new mode of
living which consisted of living on bighorn
sheep, dressing in furs and skins, and dwelling
in rocks and caves. They did not have horses nor
firearms, and used the dog as a beast of burden,
and had bows and arrows. Their homes were in the
most secluded, highest points in the mountains.
They had no modern implements, used the obsidian
knife and hatchet, dressed in animal skins. They
were called the wild men of the mountains. Lewis
and Clark called them the Broken Moccasin
Indians" (Rees, 19th Century Indian Agent on the
Lemhi Reservation ISU Manuscripts)
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Social Changes

• Ownership of resources
• Communal to individual
• Gender roles
• More dependence
• Strict gender division
• Berdache and Manly Hearted Woman
• Status system
• Status outside of kinship group
• Aboriginal hunter groups move away from
  egalitarian
• Sodalities for both men and women
• Mixture of Individualism and Cooperative Ideals

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Warfare

• Honor and status
• Bravery
• Hunting grounds

Artist rendition of Sitting Bulls capture
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Religion

• Social and individual rituals
• Balance and bounty
• Personal quest
• Medicine bundles
• Individually owned
• Calumet
• Peace
• Sharing
• Responsibility
• Blended
• Sun Dance
• Summer ceremony
• Community and personal thanks

10
Sweat Lodge

• Purification and reverence
• Common across the Plains

• Recent resurgence

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Ghost Dance

• Origin in Great Basin
• Indian and Buffalo Return
• Whites and Disease Retreat
• Wounded Knee
• Desperate Prayers
• Fear and Arrogance

Plains Ghost Shirt
New Years Day 1891