American West- GCSE history

GREAT PLAINS

The white Americans believed it was uninhabitable enviroment because:

• grasslands- 'great American desert'
• hostile environment- Indian attacks
• enormous size
• lack of trees
• little water available
• extremely cold and violent winters
• ferocious winds
• Wild animals

The White Americans believed the American Indians were savages because:

• believed in spirits- they thought the land was sacred as it had their ancestor's bones buried in them. They used to do dances e.g. sundance
• They therefore did not farm as they had to plough the land. But the Americans thought the indians did no work and were lazy
• They married more than one wife (polygomy) because there were more women than men as many of them died in war.
• Nomadic lifestyle- they followed the buffalo as it was their primary source of food and it showed them were the water was
• Exposure-  Weak and vunrable members of the tribe were left behind so they would not slow the tribe down.
• The bravest act of war was to score a ccoup (where a warrior tapped his enemy with a stick and escaped).
• Scalping- warriors removed the sccalp of the victim to stop them from going into the afterlife

They lived in tipis because:

• shape protected it from Plains winds
• easy to move (nomadic lifestyle).
• warm in winter, cool in summer

Buffalo's importance:

• food
• bones- bows and arrows
• skin for tipis
• clothes
• bones-utensils
• insides for war paint

They believed in spirits

• Believed in visions
• boys had to go through ceremonies to become men- usually violent, e.g. sundance
• Medicine men could talk to spirits and ask them for help
• Ancestors bones were in the ground and could not dig it up
• Land did not belong to anyone exept spirits and couldnt be sold