The Plains Indians
- Created by: sydn3y_14
- Created on: 17-04-17 01:40
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- The Plain Indians
- Why they were on the Plains
- They were originally forced onto the Plains by the rapid growth of the East of America in the early 1800s
- The Plains were given to the Indians, and in 1832 the US government established the Permanent Indian Frontier.
- The land was supposed to be protected for life; however the US government also hoped that by pushing the Indians onto the Plains that they would no longer be an irritation to 'white society'
- The whites brought with them many diseases and so threatened the Indians, they would be safer on the Plains
- The Plains were empty of other people but full of Buffalo, which they would use to survive
- The Buffalo
- The Indians used every part of the Buffalo - none was wasted
- The bones were used as arrowheads and knives
- The hide was used for clothes and tipi covers
- The dung was used for fuel
- The intestines were used as buckets
- The hunting of the Buffalo was very difficult - the Indians would have to follow the herds wherever they went. They could not kill too many at a time either, or else there would not be enough to sustain them
- The Indians used every part of the Buffalo - none was wasted
- Homes
- The Indians did not believe you could own land - therefore being nomadic was part of their lifestyle
- The Indians lived in tipis
- These were designed to withstand the extreme conditions of the Plains
- They were cool in the summer yet warm in the winter. They were shaped like a cone so they would not fall over in the high winds
- Everything was done inside the tipi - sleeping, cooking, and often the tipi would fill up with very dense smoke due to the open fires
- Religion and lifestyle
- The Indians believed in Polytheism - that there is more than one God
- The most famous religious ceremony was the Sun Dance - this was performed in order to get help from the spirit world
- The Sun Dance was performed in a circle - the circle was sacred to the Indians
- Women were very important - they did most of the work, including all the food preparations and keeping of the homes. The men's role were simply to fight and hunt
- They believed in Polygamy - you were allowed to have more than one wife. Many men had at least three or four wives
- During battle, the Indians scalped their enemies - this was believed to be removing the spirit of his enemy so that he could not go into the afterlife
- It was considered braver to touch a live enemy in war than to kill him. This was called counting coup
- Indian tribes had to follow the Buffalo to stay alive. When relatives got too old and frail to move with them, they left them to die - exposure
- Problems they faced
- The gradual invasion of the white settlers - trailblazers and homesteaders interrupted their lifestyle and that of the buffalo
- The US government always wanted the principle of Manifest Destiny to be invoked one day
- The Indians and the government would never get along whilst their lifestyles were so different - polygamy vs monogamy, polytheism vs monotheism, the right to own land etc
- Why they were on the Plains
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