Transcript Native peoples of North America

PLAINS NATIVES
Culture and life
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.
 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.
PLAINS
NATIVES
 Many were NOMADIC groups; moving
from place to place.
LIFE OF THE PLAINS
NATIVES
WOMEN
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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
MEN
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hunting
protection
fought in battles
taught the boys to
hunt and fight
 made tools, weapons
and shields
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
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.
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 (kneehigh) and moccasins.
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.
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
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 1900’s
They also used buffalo hides to make coneshaped tents called tepees.
Tepees of the Shoshone tribe
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.
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.
Horses, introduced to the people of the Great Plains in the 1700’s,
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.
PLAINS NATIVES
Story Book or
POSTER
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