Plains Indians

By: Anderson Kempf

Buffalo

In the 1700’s the plain Indians roamed and killed buffalo for hides and meat. The plain Indians had a shortage of buffalo in the 1700’s. The buffalo’s hides were used for trading with commentary Indians for vegetables and other foods. The Indians had different ways of hunting buffalo. An example of their hunting strategies was herding the buffalo off a cliff and killing the remaining ones that survived and taking them for meat and hides.

Transportation

                Before European and Spain brought horses in the 1600’s the Plaines Indians travelled by foot and had dogs carry cargo. The dogs could only hold about 200 pounds. When horses came the plain Indians quickly became master riders. A horse could carry about ten times the weight of a dog could so the horses were much more useful for travelling.

Nomadic and commentary

                The two words nomadic and commentary tell if the tribe stays in one place or travels. A nomadic tribe would have more meat and hides then a commentary because they are constantly moving to hunt more buffalo. The commentary had more vegetables than meats because they stay in one place and can only hunt when buffalo are close. Commentary also gain meat by trading crops with the nomadic tribes. Nomadic tribes had hides and meat top trade with commentary for crops.

Medicine, spirits and visions

If a Indian needs spiritual guidance they would go on a vision quest and a vision quest took place in an isolated area. A shaman or medicine man would use his special powers combines with herbs and rituals to heal physical injury and he also was the one who would tell you what your vision meant for example if saw a lightning bolt he would tell you it meant power or something like that. The sun god was called the “giver of life” by the Indian tribes. The tribes performed rituals for the sun god yearly these rituals where called the sun dance. A medicine bundle had items for healing people inside. A medicine bundle normally contained sweet grass, a deer’s tail, small stones and a bird’s claw.