Native People of North America
Culture and Tradition
Many tribes, including the Crow and Arapaho (pronounced
uh-RAH-puh-hoh), survived by following bison herds as they
migrated from place to place.
These groups needed homes that could be quickly taken down and rebuilt
again, so they lived in tent-like structures made of buffalo skins
called tepees.
(The Wichita people and a few other Plains tribes stayed in one place to
farm the land, living in beehive-shaped houses made of grass.)
In the mid-1700s, Plains tribes started riding horses that had been
brought over from Europe.
Groups such as the Blackfeet, Sioux (pronounced SOO), and
Comanche (pronounced kuh-MAN-chee) became master riders and
warriors,
and they controlled huge hunting grounds that supported thousands of
members. For instance, at one point, the powerful Comanche tribe had
more than 40,000 people.
Because the Plains tribes were spread across so much land, they spoke
many different languages—so they developed a single sign language for
people of all tribes to communicate with.
They also shared a tradition of dance: Different tribes practiced
ceremonial dances.
The Cheyenne (SHY-an) performed the Animal Dance, meant to send
luck to hunters so they would bring back enough food for the tribe.
The Caddo (CAD-oh) performed the Turkey Dance, which celebrated
the return of warriors from battle;
and several tribes performed the Sun Dance, in which dancers prayed for
spiritual healing and the welfare of their communities.
Plains tribes didn’t hunt more bison than they needed to survive, so the
population of these animals remained stable—that is, until European
settlers arrived.
By the 1880s these newcomers had hunted the bison almost to extinction.
Once these tribes lost their main source of food,
the U.S. government forced many of them to move to reservations, which
are lands reserved for Native Americans.
These were often located far from their traditional homelands in
present-day Oklahoma,
North Dakota, and
South Dakota believed to be unsuitable for
farming or settlement.
Today the Plains tribes are keeping their culture alive. Many host
traditional celebrations for the public to watch, and some have created
apps to make sure their languages aren’t forgotten.
They’re also helping preserve their natural resources: Tribes in Texas
are working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to restore the
region’s longleaf pine forests,
and other Plains tribes are trying to bring back bison to the region.