THE GREAT PLAINS
You Are There
What could that strange creature have been? You’ve never
seen anything like it. Was it a very big dog? Was it a deer
without antlers? How powerfully it ran! And how fast!
“Go out onto the grassy plain,” your mother had told you
earlier. “Find some small game and bring them back to the
village for me to cook.” So you set out with your bow and a
bag of arrows over your shoulder. Suddenly, this strange
animal appears, then races off into the distance. You forget all
about hunting game. Instead, you race back to your village to
report your mysterious sighting.
Inference: What do you think this animal was?
You Are There
The creature that startled you
was a horse. It is the first one
you and your people have
ever seen. But it certainly will
not be the last.
Before long, the horse will
change your people’s way of
life.
Life on the Plains
• The scene described in "You Are There" might have
taken place in the Great Plains cultural region of
North America. The Great Plains was—and still is—a
fairly flat region.
• Hundreds of years ago, much of it was covered with a
sea of grass, waving in ever- blowing wind. Unlike the
Eastern Woodlands, few trees grew on the dry Great
Plains. But millions of buffalo grazed the huge area.
Life on the Plains
Tribes of the Great Plains
include the Lakota, also
known as the Sioux, as
well as the Pawnee, and
Osage.
Among the later arrivals
were the Cheyenne, an
Algonquian-speaking
people.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/lb6dskIQ3tM/TYY1Gyh3WQI/AAAAAAAAAS0/fsk_CigZwaE/s320/plains%2Bindian.jpg
Life on the Plains
• For a long time, most Plains
people followed a farming and
hunting life. Because much of
the land was dry, they settled
their villages along rivers. Here
they could get water for their
crops—corn, beans, squash,
and pumpkins.
Cause – Because the land was dry,
Effect -
Life on the Plains
• Plains Indians
built lodges to live
in.
• These were large,
round huts built over
a deep hole. The
walls of a lodge
were made of earth,
packed over a wood
frame.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Glenwood_earthlodge.jpg
http://www.sd4history.com/Unit3/images/buffaloposter.gif
Life on the Plains
The plentiful buffalo were central to the lives of the
Plains Indians.
• People used these animals as a major source of
meat.
• The people made buffalo hides into articles like
clothing and blankets.
• They carved buffalo horns into bowls.
• They even used the stomachs of buffalos, hung from
four poles, as cooking pots for stew.
Life on the Plains
• In summer and fall, groups of Plains Indians traveled to
hunt the massive beasts. A buffalo could weigh well
over a ton and could run very fast. The hunters were
on foot. It was difficult for them to get close enough
to use their bows and arrows.
• Plains Indians could kill their prey by crouching near
them in an animal disguise, or by getting the buffalo
to stampede over a cliff.
Life on the Plains
• While on the hunt,
people lived
in tepees. To make
a tepee, women set
up poles in a circle,
their tops coming
together at a point.
Then they covered
the frame with
buffalo hides.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/__TkYG1RhmoU/SuPMjZLuj_I/AAAAAAAACQg/gUkK6zc9at4/s400/tee
pee400.jpg
Life on the Plains
http://1onewolf.com/lakota/Images/Society/dog_indians_travois.jpg
People also used the
poles to transport
buffalo meat and
other goods. They
made a travois (truh
VOY) by lashing the
load to two poles.
Dogs then pulled the
travois. A travois’s
load could weigh
about 75 pounds.
The Cheyenne
• In the 1500s, people from Spain brought the horse to the regions
of the Aztec and Maya in Mexico. The tribes living near Spanish
settlements were the first to learn of the horse. Some horses
broke free and wandered north.
• In the late 1700s, the Cheyenne tamed some of the descendants
of these horses which had become wild.
• The Cheyenne also got horses by raiding other tribes and by
trading. Using the horse, the Cheyenne changed their way of life.
Buffalo hunting became a major way to gain food.
The Cheyenne
• The horse made buffalo hunting much easier. Mounted on a swift horse,
a single Cheyenne hunter could ride close to a herd of buffalo. Then, he
could use his bow and arrow to kill the animals. Later on, Plains hunters
also used guns to hunt.
• The horse also made the Cheyenne settlements much more mobile, or
easy to move. A horse-drawn travois could move four times as much
weight as a travois pulled by a dog. And horses could move twice as fast.
• Now Cheyenne women could more easily move tepees and set up new
camps.
• The Cheyenne developed a way of life based on moving to different
places in different seasons. They now referred to the past as the time
when we had only dogs for moving camp.
The Cheyenne
The horse became so important to
the Cheyenne and other Plains people
that they measured wealth in horses.
Sometimes tribes raided other tribes
to capture horses. Riders became
skilled in war as well as in hunting.
The Cheyenne Today
Today, about 12,000
Cheyenne live on the
Great Plains. Many live
in present-day Montana
on a reservation
established by the
government. You will
read more about the
conflict between the
American Indians and
the United States
government in later
chapters.
The Cheyenne Today
Many Cheyenne follow
their traditions,
keeping their language
and ceremonies alive.
Every Fourth of July
the Northern Cheyenne
powwow is held
in Lame Deer,
Montana. Visitors of
the powwow can see
traditional dances and
games of the
Cheyenne.
A Powwow is a
gathering of American
Indians.
Review
• How did the travois help move goods?
• In what ways did the arrival of the horse change the
way of life for the tribes of the Great Plains?
• Critical Thinking: Make Decisions If you were a leader
among the Cheyenne, how might you decide when it
was time to move the settlement to a new area?
• Where are Cheyenne reservations located today?