GREAT PLAINS NATIVE AMERICANS LAURYN GRADY ERIN SPENCER SYDNEY MCKENNA

LOCATION AND ENVIRONMENT Center of America Present day Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota Hot Summers, cold winters, many grass covered prairies Containing plants and animals such as: Small bushes, shrubs, and short trees Buffalo, beavers, and wolves

CULTURE Dictated by climate, land, raw materials, animals, and many plants Provided most food and clothing Lifestyle would change based on seasons Two main lifestyles (warm and cold) Language, beliefs, ceremonies, & religions made up most of culture

ART AND CLOTHING Decorated tipis and clothing to make colorful Used traditional pictographs as art form Native peoples were often tattooed as a symbol for tribe Used quillwork- oldest form of embroidery- to make gloves and blankets Ex. of modern day clothing inspired by Great Plains Indians: ○ Moccasins ○ Leggings ○ Ponchos ○ Belts

RELIGION Religion based on Animism Animism- the belief all natural things on earth have souls or spirits This would also include thunderstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, mountains, etc. would also include souls or spirits Believed in Manitou- The Great Spirit or Great God Sun Dance To honor the sun at Summer Solstice To prove bravery and overcoming pain

TRIBES Blackfoot - "Siksika" ; involved in lots of conflict even within the tribe; North Dakota and South Dakota; VERY against the whites; nomadic hunter gatherers; tobacco Cheyenne - powerful and resourceful; VERY against the whites; forced west by the French; Northern and Southern Cheyenne; nomadic buffalo hunters Sioux - against whites, had many conflicts; hunters and warriors; violent against Europe and US army; forced west by French; Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Sioux Pawnee - "Pani"; farmers and hunters; astronomers; corns, beef, squash, sunflowers; called the "wolves"; ONLY PLAINS TRIBE TO DO HUMAN SACRIFICE; war captives were all taken in as Pawnees except one which was sacrificed.

TRIBES Crow - industrious; nomadic hunters; conflict with other Indians trying to take their land; were scouts for the US army; no villages just camps; called themselves bird people or "Absaroka"; grew only tobacco Comanche - southern areas of the Great Plains; against whites and other Native American groups; conflict with other tribes and the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans; they and their horses used war paint; Arapaho - secret warrior societies; allies were Cheyenne and Sioux; used to be farmers but then moved to be nomadic buffalo hunters; divided into the Northern Arapaho and the Southern Arapaho

SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND ECONOMY Male dominated Men would hunt, women were in charge of home Didn’t have classes Each tribe has specific allies with other tribes Traded with Europeans using furs, guns, and knives Traded Europeans for horses, guns, and metals Apaches, Comanches, Cheyennes, and Crows all served as middlemen

LANGUAGES Classifications of language: Caddoan, Athapaskan, Siouan, Algonquian, Iroquoian, Muskogean, Uto-Aztecan, Tanoan, Klamath-Modoc, Sahaptian, Isolates ○ Each classification has multiple branches of language subfamilies Caddoan communities- some of the oldest speakers of Native American lang. in modern day times Language families were separated into own separate regions for a long time, until intro. of horses

LANGUAGES (CONT.) Although these languages are all from around the same area, more than half of them have almost nothing in common with each other Examples of water in the languages of the Great Plains: ○ Algonquian- Nibi ○ Klamath-madoc- 'Ambo ○ Muskogean- Owv ○ Sahaptian- Chiish

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