PLAINS NATIVES

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PLAINS NATIVES

• Culture and life

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The Great Plains

• This culture group of Indians is well-known for
  the importance of the buffalo, their religious
  ceremonies, and the use of the tipi.
• Four important tribes in this culture include the
  Dakota, Cheyenne, Sioux, and Comanche.
• The buffalo was the most important natural
  resource of the Plains Natives.
• The Plains Natives were hunters. They hunted many
  kinds of animals, but it was the buffalo which
  provided them with all of their basic needs
  food, clothing, and shelter.

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• The horse, first introduced by the Spanish of the
  Southwest, appeared in the Plains about the
  beginning of the 18th cent. and revolutionized
  the life of the Plains Natives.
• Many Native Americans left their villages and
  joined the nomads.
• Mounted and armed with bow and arrow, they ranged
  the grasslands hunting buffalo.

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PLAINS NATIVES

• Many were NOMADIC groups moving from place to
  place.

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LIFE OF THE PLAINS NATIVES

• WOMEN

• MEN

• Took care of the tipi (setting up and taking
  down)
• raised the children
• packed when it was time to move
• helped butcher the animals
• gathered berries and other plants
• collected firewood
• prepared the food
• prepared the skins (cleaning, curing, scraping
  and tanning)
• made clothing and other articles
• quilling and beadwork
• taught the girls the same duties

• hunting
• protection
• fought in battles
• taught the boys to hunt and fight
• made tools, weapons and shields

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FOOD

• Bison (buffalo)
• Antelope, deer, elk and moose were hunted.
• Gophers, rabbits, prairie chickens and other
  small animals and birds were caught in snare
  traps.
•  

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PREPARING THE MEAT

• roasted on a spit on the campfire.
• boiled in a skin bag
• cut into thin slices and hung to dry.
• made into pemmican
• Dried meat was pounded with a rock until it
  became powder. Then it was mixed with melted fat
  and berries.
• liver, kidneys, marrow and nose were eaten fresh

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FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

• Many kinds of berries were picked including
  chokecherries, blueberries, raspberries,
  strawberries and saskatoons.
• The berries were eaten fresh or dried. Berries
  were also used for dyes, jewelry and medicines.
  Food was stored in birchbark containers.
• Plants that grew wild such as wild rice, bitter
  root, onions and prairie turnips were also
  picked.
• Turnips were eaten raw, boiled or roasted. Dried
  turnips and pounded into flour.
• Dried sage was used for flavouring food and moss
  was used for tea.

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CLOTHING

• In the early days animal skins (of deer,
  antelope, moose) were used instead of cloth. The
  women prepared the hides, made and mended the
  clothes.
• The men wore long shirts , breechcloths, long
  leggings, a belt and moccasins.
• The women wore long dresses , short leggings
  (knee-high) and moccasins.

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JEWELRY DECORATION

• Jewelry was made from shells, claws, teeth or
  feathers.
• Bags, belts and special clothing for ceremonies
  were decorated with shells, claws, feathers,
  quillwork, hair or strips of fur.
• Later colorful beads were used.
• Tails of animals (weasel and fox) were also used
  for decoration.
• Clothing that was worn daily was not decorated,
  except for a row of beadwork or fringes.

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SHELTER

• Villagers resided for most of the year in earth
  lodges.
• Teepees (tipis), were used when the villagers
  were moving from place to place.
• The tepee is a conical tent, its foundation being
  either three or four poles other poles placed
  around these formed a roughly circular base.
• Before the horse, tepees averaged about 10 feet
  in diameter, encompassing approximately 80 square
  feet (7.5 square metres)
• later they averaged about 15 feet in diameter
  (4.5 metres), for an interior of some 175 square
  feet (16.25 square metres).
• A teepee would usually house a two- or
  three-generation family. The cover was made from
  dressed buffalo skins

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Because there were few trees, the people of the
Great Plains made homes out of sod, or thickly
matted grass.
Apparently deserted sod house, but in relatively
good shape, showing door, two windows and stove
pipe. It is built in two sections with two
different roof lines. To left in background is a
windmill. Kansas, early 1900s
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They also used buffalo hides to make cone-shaped
tents called tepees.
Tepees of the Shoshone tribe
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WINTER CAMP

• The Plains tribes lived in small groups or bands
  during the long winter months. For five months of
  the year (November to March) they lived in one
  place - known as the winter camp. The winter camp
  was set up in a protected area where there was
  water, wood, game and grass for the horses.

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GATHERINGS

• Then in late spring or early summer, the bands
  would get together again for religious
  ceremonies, important meetings and the yearly
  bison hunt which took place in late summer and
  fall.

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Horses, introduced to the people of the Great
Plains in the 1700s, made hunting easier and
decreased their reliance on agriculture.
"Assiniboine hunting buffalo", painting by Paul
Kane (1810-1871). Oil on canvas, Painted
between 1851 and 1856.
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PLAINS NATIVESStory Book or POSTER

• Follow the directions on the handout

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