THE GREAT PLAINS

You Are ThereWhat 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.

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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.

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Life on the PlainsThe 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/

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Life on the Plains

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.

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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 CheyenneThe 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 TodayMany 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?