America 1835-1900

The Plains Indians

 Learning Objective
To identify some key features of the lifestyle of some Indigenous peoples living on
the Great Plains.
Targeting Assessment Objectives AO1 and AO2.

Success Criteria
• To identify some important parts of tribal society and culture.
• To judge the best characteristics of a leader.
• To assess the importance of buffalo to Indigenous society.
 A Note on Language
The terms used in this unit of work for what people at the time referred to as
‘Indians’ can be problematic.

This lesson is entitled ‘Plains Indians’, to best fit with the term commonly used by
examining bodies and textbooks. The term ‘Indians’ is neither accurate nor
unanimously accepted by the modern descendants of these peoples. Christopher
Columbus, on arriving in what he believed to be the east coast of India, named the
Indigenous population Indians which was, of course, a misnomer. The name stuck
however, and you will see it used in sources and sometimes when describing
Indigenous
peoples and historic events in the USA.

In this unit of work, the more accepted

term ‘Indigenous peoples’ will be used
where possible and wherever it does not
conflict with primary sources or make the
topic more difficult to understand.
 Communities
What factors keep communities together? Examine the pictures below with a partner and try to
come up with five factors.

Some factors:
family, religion, sport, geographical area, language, ethnicity, similar interests/passions,
history, tradition, gender
Photos courtesy of Danilo Borges and Matt Crypto (via commons.wikimedia.org) - granted under creative commons licence – attribution
 Communities
This lesson focuses on communities that
lived on the Great Plains of the USA.
Known as Indigenous peoples or nations,
there were hundreds of different
communities.

Each nation was different, which makes

it hard to generalise about the ways in
which they lived. For every aspect of
life, there were nations that did things
differently. This lesson tries to give
some general information that is
Pause for Thought: What factors do
applicable to most nations, but certainly
not all. you think kept this community
together?
 Indigenous Societies
Many Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains lived in seasonally nomadic societies known as
nations. They would spend the autumn and winter in earth lodges and spend the warmer
months moving around the plains and living in tipis.

Each nation would be made up of bands; small groups of between 50 and 100 people that
would be self-governing for most of the time.

Each band was usually led by a chief who was in power based on his wisdom and skills. Their
leadership skills were often referred to as strong spiritual energy or ‘medicine’.

Each chief would have a council of elders and

medicine men or doctors. This council would
discuss decisions before they were made.
Sometimes tobacco was smoked during
ceremonies to gain the wisdom of the spirits.

Each nation also contained warrior societies.

All the adult men of a band would be part
of this society
 Indigenous Society: Chiefs
Chiefs did not rule a band by making and enforcing laws, but by being respected. Chiefdom
was not hereditary; it was based on merit rather than birth. A chief could not make members of
a band do anything and decisions were made by a council. Being a chief was more about
having the responsibility of protecting the band than wielding power.

Source 1
I am poor and naked, but I am
the chief of the nation.
We do not want riches but we
do want to train our children
right.
Riches would do us no good.
We could not take them with
us to the other world.
We do not want riches. We Red Cloud, Oglala Wolf Robe, Pretty Nose, Arapaho
Lakota War Chief Cheyenne Chief War Chief
want peace and love.
Chief Red Cloud, Sioux
 Indigenous Religion
Both historic and modern Indigenous nations often have animist beliefs. This means that they
believe that all things have a spirit; the trees, hills, rivers, animals etc. Indigenous people may
therefore have a spiritual connection to their environment.

Some nations believe in a spirit that is beyond the earth. In some cases
this is known as the Great Spirit, the Great Mystery or one of a
hundred other names. Before European contact, Indigenous people did
not view this spirit as a Christian might view God; they saw it more as
a mysterious guiding force outside or above normal life that should be
respected.

In some nations, medicine men were the people responsible for

communing with these spirits, battling bad spirits that caused diseases
and interpreting dreams and visions. Not all medicine men were male,
despite the name, and women could also perform this role.

Medicine men (and women) are often described as shamans

– a common feature of many animist religions around
the world.
 Indigenous Society: Medicine Men
Source 2
The traditions of our people are handed down from father to
son.
The Chief is considered to be the most learned, and the leader of
the tribe.
The Doctor, however, is thought to have more inspiration.
He is supposed to be in communion with spirits...
He cures the sick by the laying of hands, and prayers and
Nesjaja Hatali, incantations and heavenly songs.
Navajo Medicine Man
Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, Northern Paiute, 1883

Source 3
Blackfoot Medicine Man, performing
a religious ceremony by George
Catlin, 1832

Betsy Thunder,
Ho-Chunk Medicine Woman
 Leadership
What would be the most important characteristics to
look for in a chief or medicine man?

It is your task to have a conversation with a small

group and to decide on the top three characteristics
that you would look for each type of leader.

You can use the word mat to help you, but there is a
catch – you only have five minutes to decide on the
top three for each, and no one in your group can
talk.

Use pens and paper, hand signals and body

language to have this conversation. You must agree
on your top threes.
 Indigenous Society: Warrior Societies
Warrior societies were groups of men that held the responsibility of hunting buffalo, the safe
travel of a band and protecting their tipis from attackers.

Warrior societies would also fight in wars against other Indigenous peoples or the American
settlers of the USA.

Source 4
Blackfoot Warrior,
painted by Karl
Bodmer, c. 1840
 Indigenous Society: Women and Homes
Women played an equal, if opposite, roll to men in most Indigenous societies. They were
responsible for the tipis, raising children, fetching water and making clothes and jewellery.
Some women also played a roll as warriors, with some even leading war bands in the Indian
Wars.
Some nations practiced forms of plural marriage, with men having more than one wife at a
time or women having multiple husbands (though usually not both in the same nation).
Conversely, other nations practiced monogamy with people only marrying one person at a
time.
Tipis were the standard homes of the plains Indigenous peoples when they moved around.
Made from buffalo hide around a frame of wooden poles, these tents had a flap in the top to
allow smoke from the fire within to pass out. The bottom edges of the tipi could be raised in
times of warm weather and the conical shape kept the structure secure in high winds.
Tipis were portable; they would be disassembled and dragged around behind dogs or horses.
This meant that a band’s village could follow wherever the buffalo herds went.
 Uses of a Buffalo
With a partner, use your Buffalo Activity Sheet to cut out the labels and match
them to the correct part of the buffalo.

On your activity sheet, explain why the buffalo was so important to the life of Indigenous
nations on the Great Plains.
 Life Without Buffalo
With a partner, discuss how Indigenous people living on the Great Plains would be
affected if buffalo disappeared.

List three ways life would be different.