Plains culture

• CATEGORY: Culture area
• LANGUAGE GROUPS: Algonquian, Athapaskan, Caddoan, Kiowa-Tanoan, Siouan, Uto-Aztecan
• TRIBES: Apache of Oklahoma, Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine (Nakota), Atsina, Blackfoot (Blood, Piegan, Siksika), Caddo, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kansa (Kaw), Kiowa, Mandan, Missouri, Omaha, Osage, Oto, Pawnee, Ponca, Quapaw, Sarsi, Sioux (Santee, Teton, Yankton), Tonkawa, Waco, Wichita

The Plains culture area extended from southern Canada to southern Texas and from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River. It included short-grass plains in the west, tall-grass prairie in the east, and mixed tall and short grasses in between. Many Indigenous Nations from different regions and cultures moved into the area, but all adopted the basic Plains culture based on hunting bison (buffalo). Aspects of the parent cultures were apparent in Plains Indian culture, but they were modified by the Plains environment and by cultural exchange with other Indigenous Nations to produce the unique Plains culture.

Regional Prehistory

According to the most popular theory, the earliest Indigenous people in the Plains area were descendants of Asian peoples who traveled from Siberia to Alaska over the Bering Strait land bridge called Beringia some twelve thousand years ago. At the time, glaciers covered much of Eurasia and North America. The water in the great ice sheets was taken from the oceans, lowering sea level and exposing a 1,000-mile-wide land connection between parts of Siberia and Alaska that were not glaciated.

As the glaciers melted, a corridor of unglaciated land was opened to more southerly parts of North America. The prehistoric Indigenous people (or Paleo-Indians) moved through that corridor, eventually reaching the tip of South America. The first North Americans hunted mammoths and other large mammals, but the populations that occupied the Plains area went through several cultural and economic transitions before the historic Indigenous Nations entered the Plains. The relationship between the Plains Tribes occupying the area at the time of European contact and the prehistoric Indigenous people is obscure.

Most versions of the origins of modern Nations suggest that they moved into the grasslands from the Eastern Woodlands (the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho from the Northeast culture area and the Pawnee and Wichita from the Southeast) and the Southwest (Comanche and Kiowa). Subdivisions of Nations from other cultural areas also used the Plains, and their cultures were molded to some extent by the Plains. The Ute and Shoshone of the Great Basin, Nez Perce of the Plateau, and Cree from the Subarctic are examples.

Before Horses

Whatever their origins, the Plains Indians became nomadic buffalo hunters when they moved into the grasslands. Buffalo meat supplied food, some of which was smoked and dried for sustenance between hunts. Buffalo hides supplied robes, rawhide, and leather for other items of clothing and the cover for tipis. Indigenous Americans also hunted deer, pronghorn antelope, and other big game and used the meat and hides in similar ways. They gathered fruit, seeds, roots, and other vegetable foods as well. All these resources were important, but the buffalo was central to Plains Indian survival and culture.

The buffalo culture was firmly established before the Plains Nations obtained horses. Four main techniques were used to kill the buffalo: They were surrounded and killed with arrows and lances, driven over cliffs, driven into enclosures and killed there, and nearly surrounded by fire and killed as they fled the flames through the opening. These techniques were sometimes combined—for example, fire could be used to drive bison over a cliff.

Indigenous Americans followed the herds on foot using dogs, often pulling travois, to carry their possessions. The tipi, easily erected and taken down, lent itself to regular movement. The men hunted and waged war. The women cooked, preserved, sewed, collected plant foods, and put up and took down the tipi. Some Nations (Omaha and Ponca, for example) used tipis only during the buffalo hunts in early summer and autumn. They lived in earthen lodges near the Missouri River during the rest of the year. There, they planted gardens of corn, beans, and squash. The Pawnee, who lived south of the Platte River, practiced a similar schedule. The western Plains Nations (Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Teton Sioux) lived in tipis year-round, came together in large groups for the hunting season and for ceremonies, and scattered in extended family groups to the protected valleys of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains for winter. In winter, they continued to hunt but depended on food preserved from the summer buffalo hunts for much of their sustenance.

Religion, Status, and Art

The spiritual life of Plains Indians was closely integrated with secular life. They held elaborate ceremonies, such as the Sun Dance, when the Nation was together for the buffalo hunt. Most had a sacred symbol, often a medicine pipe. The term “medicine” in this context is probably better translated “power,” as the Indigenous people believed the pipe to be a symbol of the power which assured their success in hunting, warfare, and other endeavors. Several such symbols were kept in a medicine bundle. The circle (wheel) was of great importance to the Plains Indians as a symbol of the unity and continuity of all aspects of nature.

Many individuals also kept a personal medicine bundle. The symbolic contents of these bundles were often obtained during a vision quest, in which a young man (occasionally a young woman) fasted alone in a wilderness area, hoping to receive a vision from which he obtained his medicine (power), indicating his particular abilities and often giving direction to his life. His medicine bundle would then be made up, using symbols of his medicine.

Games, hunting, warfare, and choice of leaders were spiritual endeavors in Plains Indian culture. Games such as shinny (like field hockey) were parts of certain religious ceremonies. Supernatural signs were sought to determine whether a raid or hunt should proceed. Daring deeds such as touching a live enemy (“counting coup”) ranked above killing an enemy in determining the respect due a warrior. Leadership positions were obtained by performing such deeds, demonstrating skill in hunting, and practicing generosity. Advancement through the male societies (lodges), which played important roles in Tribal organization, depended on a man’s bravery and his ability to provide for—and willingness to share with—the Tribe. Most Plains peoples chose their chiefs based on these characteristics. Some Nations had hereditary chiefs, but to maintain a following, the chief had to demonstrate these qualities.

Some Plains Indian art forms were spiritually symbolic. Pictographic art, usually produced by men, often depicted feats performed in hunting and warfare. The patterns used in much of the decorative art were based on straight lines, triangles, and diamonds, and their meaning was known only to the artist. Porcupine quills and, later, beads were extensively used for decoration. Any of these may have been produced simply for their beauty and symmetry, but it is likely that many such works also held spiritual meaning for their creator. Circles used in artworks probably were symbolic of the unity of nature.

Impact of Horses

The horse, introduced in historic times by the Spanish, fit beautifully into Plains Indian life. Buffalo hunting became easier and often involved a new technique in which individual bison were chased and brought down with bows and arrows. The travois was enlarged and fitted to the horse, so moves could be made more rapidly. Warfare could be carried out over greater distances, with greater speed and daring. Even when armed only with bows and arrows, Indigenous Americans on horseback were skilled and fearless fighters, as the United States Army learned in the Plains Indian wars. Rifles, obtained from European Americans to the east, made them even more formidable. Their conquerors ranked them among the greatest mounted warriors in history.

The wars were primarily fought as a result of repeated encroachment by European Americans on Indian land, and they came to a close so quickly primarily because of diseases (especially smallpox) and the near extinction of buffalo, not because of superior skill and strategy on the part of the invading armies. The most intense phase of the Plains wars began with the Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho (1864). This period included the Fetterman fight and Bozeman Trail war with the Sioux; the Red River war with the Comanches, Kiowa, and Cheyenne; and the battle with the Sioux and Cheyenne on the Little Bighorn River. It finally ended with the Wounded Knee Massacre of the Sioux in South Dakota in December 1890. The greater numbers and advanced technology of the White people left little doubt as to the outcome. Against these odds, the Plains Indians left an indelible mark on American history and the history of warfare.

Most elements of Plains Indian culture were shared with the Indigenous people of the surrounding culture areas, especially the Woodland Indians to the east. The specific combination of characteristics, however, was found in no other group. With few exceptions and with abundant variation, this combination was shared by all the Indigenous Nations in the Plains. Symbolic of independent life lived in harmony with nature, Plains culture is the Indigenous American culture most familiar to the rest of the world.

Bibliography

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Frehner, Brian, and Kathleen A. Brosnan. The Greater Plains: Rethinking a Region’s Environmental Histories. U of Nebraska P, 2021.

Hoover, Herbert T. The Yankton Sioux. Chelsea House, 1988.

Lowie, Robert H. Indians of the Plains. McGraw-Hill, 1954. Reprint. U of Nebraska P, 1982.

"Plains Culture Area." Arizona Museum of Natural History, www.arizonamuseumofnaturalhistory.org/explore-the-museum/exhibitions/native-cultures-of-western-north-america/plains. Accessed 10 Dec. 2024.

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