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Great Plains
Environment
Plains region consists primarily of grasslands with some wooded areas.
Bison were the principal game for the Plains people.
Some people farmed in the Plains region, especially along rivers.
Language Groups
Macro-Siouans:
Crow
Dakota
Lakota
Nakota
Hidatsa
Mandan
Algonquians
Cheyenne
Blackfeet
Major Subsistence Patterns
In this area, cultural differences do not follow language lines, but different patterns of subsistence:
Agricultural people who hunted bison only part-time and traded with bison hunters.
Full-time nomadic bison hunters.
Agricultural People
Hidatsa: lived along Missouri River in North Dakota.
Grew maize, beans, squash, watermelons, and tobacco.
Flood plain agriculture.
Summer villages crucial trading centers for buffalo hunters.
Hidatsa Life
Matrilineal kinship; earthlodges planned and owned by women.
Winter and summer villages
Summer: villages on terraces above river valley.
Winter: villages nearer river, in shelter of trees and valley.
"Sioux" people
Dakota: Mdwewankanton, Wahpeton, Wahpekute, Sisseton.
Subsistence very similar to Ojibwe neighbors. Hunted, fished, gathered wild rice, planted only a little big.
Nakota (Yankton):
Much like Hidatsa and Mandan, planting and hunting a little bit.
Bison Hunting "Sioux"
Teton Lakota: Brule, Oglalla, Miniconjou, Sans Arc, Two Kettle, Hunkpapa, and Blackfoot (not same as Blackfeet).
Nomadic bison hunters
Traveled in bands of 50 -100 people, following bison herds.
Bison Hunters of the Plains
Focus on Crow, or Apsaalooke
"Children of the Raven"
Territory: northern Wyoming, southern Montana.
Oral history: once lived in earthlodges along Missouri River, but separated from Hidatsa and took up nomadic life.
Horses
Before Europeans brought horses, bison hunters moved slowly, with dogs as beasts of burden.
Horse changed bison hunters’ lives dramatically.
Introduced social ranking, encouraged raiding as well as mobility.
Clothing
As in all areas of life, the bison is key.
Bison hide was the most important source of clothing.
Deer hide also used.
Clothing Decoration
2 main styles: porcupine quills and glass beads.
Porcupine quills – traditional method
Gather quills or acquire by trade
Color with mineral or vegetable dye
Soften
Embroider designs
Glass Bead Decoration
Glass beads became available from European traders.
Replace much use of porcupine quills for weaving.
Beads were easier to use, more colorful, yet well-suited to traditional decoration patterns.
Architecture
Bison hunters were nomadic, so had no permanent villages.
Emphasis for their architecture on:
Portability
Good shelter in harsh climate
Quick assembly
Tipis
When horses became available, tipis became much, much larger.
Travois: method of conveyance.
Dogs in earlier times.
Horses when available.
Tipi cover: crucial element of tipi.
Bison hides, sewn together.
Subsistence and Economy
Primary food for Crow was from hunting – bison, deer, elk, and antelope.
Trade for maize and other vegetables with the Hidatsa.
Labor: men hunted; women cooked, cared for tipis, and processed hides and meat. Hide working crucial skill for women.
Kinship and Social Organization
Crow were matrilineal, with clans, similar to Hidatsa
When changed to bison hunting, became patrilocal, but matrilineal ideas remain in ideas about tipis.
Clan and family relations crucial in Crow culture.
Children and Family
People often had multiple games, some given by family and some acquired by experiences.
Children’s behavior rather ungoverned; they were expected to learn adult roles by mimicking adults.
Two-spirit people respect for sacred role.
Politics and Warfare
Primary reason to raid was to avenge a death. Most war either for retaliation or to get horses.
Men sought 4 achievements:
Lead a successful raid
Capture tethered horses
Count coup
Take a weapon from a living enemy
Political System
Political leadership by consensus
Honored warriors had day to day authority, as long as people had faith in them.
When conditions changed, new people took over leadership.
Religion
Crow religion about individual relationship with guiding spirit.
No complex organizations or priesthood.
Sweat lodge part of spiritual activity, for purification in preparation for vision quest or recovery from battle.
Vision Quest
Person seeking prepares in sweat lodge.
Then goes to wilderness, usually mountains, in seclusion for 3 to 4 days without food or water.
Spirits may appear in the form of animals or any natural object or force.
Tobacco
Smoking tobacco is a vital part of sacred activity.
Ritual act as part of prayer.
Seals a promise or agreement.
Part of curing rituals.
Sun Dance
Important traditional ceremony for all Plains tribes.
Abandoned around 1875, but revived in the 1940s.
People pledge to sponsor Sun Dance.
Participants pledge to sacrifice on individual basis.
Sun Dance Ceremony
Men, women, children participate.
Lasts 4 days, beginning with cutting the tree for the center pole.
Thunderbird nest on top.
Piercing, deprivation for vision questing.
Crow Culture Change
European settlements pushed Indians westward to the Plains.
Transcontinental railroad completed in 1869.
Bison hides became highly sought commodity; by 1880, bison essentially depleted as resource for Indians.
Crow Reservation
Treaty of Laramie 1868 formed Crow Reservation; land restricted more later.
Transition to sedentary life difficult for nomadic bison hunters.
Plains people resisted European control well into the 19th Century.
Imprisonment inspired new art form: ledger book art.
Ghost Dance
Ghost Dance originated in Plains – Paiute named Wovoka, 1890.
Dance meant to bring restoration of buffalo and land of Indian people.
Especially powerful for nomadic Plains people who had lost their way of life.
Contemporary Life for the Crow
Dawes Act, 1887 had great impact on Crow reservation because Crow hated sedentary life and were more likely to sell to whites out of desperation.
Lack of provision for future generations: one 160 acre allotment had 245 heirs by 1967!
Tradition and Change
Crow have maintained many cultural practices, despite economic change.
Clans still play significant role.
Crow language still spoken, but fewer young people learning it.
Horses still important.
Tribe seeking to regain lost land and increase income.
