GREAT PLAINS AREA

The Great Plains is the area that stretches approxiamtely from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi and from the Rio Grande to the frost line in Canada. The culture and dress of the people who lived on he Plains in the 1800's provide many with the picture of the "typical" Indian - whatever that may mean! The Indian in war bonnet astride a hourse shooting buffalo (Amerian bison) is hardly representative of the enormous variation in cultures across the country and throughout time.

The horse, for example, is a result of European contact. There is no evidence of any horses being known to the native populations in the Americas until the arrival of the Europeans. The great feathered bonnets belong properly to only the people of the Northern Plains area.

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Peoples and Languages

PEOPLELANGUAGE FAMILY
Plains CreeAlgonkin
BlackfootAlgonkin
Blood*Algonkin
Piegan*Algonkin
Plains ObjibwaAlgonkin
Atsina or Gros VentreAlgonkin
CheyenneAlgonkin
Sutai**Algonkin
ArapahoAlgonkin
SarsiAthabascan
Kiowa-ApacheAthabascan
PawneeCaddoan
ArikaraCaddoan
WichitaCaddoan
KiowaKiowan
ShoshoneShoshonean
CommancheShoshonean
AssiniboineSiouan
CrowSiouan
DakotaSiouan
Teton***Siouan
Yanktoni***Siouan
Yankton***Siouan
Sisseton***Siouan
MandanSiouan
HidatsaSiouan
PoncaSiouan
OmahaSiouan
IowaSiouan
OtoSiouan
MissouriSiouan
KansaSiouan
OsageSiouan

* subdivision of Blackfoot
** subdivision of Cheyenne
*** subdivisions of Dakota

Major Source of Food

     The peoples of the Plains are typically divided between those who were nomadic and those who were sedentary.
     The nomadic peoples of the Plains (all listed above except for the Arikara, Pawness, Wichita, Mandan, Hidatsa, Ponca, Omaha, Iowa, Oto, Missouri, Kansa and Osage) were largely hunters and gathers and the Bison was of major importance. For the sedentary peoples, maize (corn) was of great importance.

House Types

     The nomadic peoples of the Plains had a verstile "mobile home" known as the tipi, a conical structure that could be broken down and moved with the help of dogs and later the horse.
     The sedentary peoples built earth lodges.

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