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Native Americansof the Great Plains

A Reading A–Z Level Z Leveled Reader

Word Count: 2,145

LLEEVVEELLEEDD RREEAADDEERR •• ZZ

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Written byLinda Johns

Native Americans of the Great PlainsLevel Z Leveled Reader© 2004 ProQuest Information andLearning CompanyWritten by Linda Johns

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www.readinga-z.com

Native Americansof the Great Plains

www.readinga-z.com

Written by Linda JohnsCorrelation

LEVEL ZFountas & Pinnell VReading Recovery 29

DRA N/A

Photo Credits:Cover, back cover, title page, pages 3, 4, 6, 7 (right), 8, 9, 11,13 (inset),14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22: © ArtToday; page 13: © Library of Congress; page 7 © Buddy Mays/CORBIS; page 12: © CORBIS; page 20: Robert van der Hilst/CORBIS; page 21: © Ed Kashi/CORBIS

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Table of Contents

The Great Plains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

Home on the Plains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Where Buffalo Once Roamed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Horses, Weapons, and War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Celebrations and Rituals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

The Indian Wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

The Plains Native Americans Today . . . . . . . . .20

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

The Great Plains

The Great Plains of the United States stretch from the Rocky Mountains in the west beyond theMissouri River in the east. The Great Plains extendnorth into Canada and south nearly to Mexico.

Long ago the Great Plains were characterized bygently rolling hills covered with tall grasses. Withfew trees to block them, strong winds whippedacross the Great Plains, blowing hot in the summerand bitterly cold in the winter. It was dry, withrainfall averaging 20 inches (51 cm) a year.

A little over two hundred years ago, in the early1800s, there were only 150,000 people living in theGreat Plains. Most were Native Americans, butthere were also European settlers.

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Home on the Plains

Lots of people think of teepees as typicalhomes for Native Americans of the past, andmany Plains tribes actually did live in teepees.These amazing mobile homes were ideal fornomadic hunters on the Plains because they weredesigned to be strong enough to withstand heavywinds, provide heat in the winter, and let air flowthrough in the hot summer months.

Wooden poles gave the teepee its coneshape, and some of the poles were 25 feet (7.6m) tall. Bison hides were stitched together tomake the walls. The poles and hides that madethe teepee could be quickly taken down andthen transported to a new location. Once a tribedecided where to settle, two to three peoplecould set up a teepee in less than two hours.

People shared the Great Plains with more thansixty million bison, or buffalo. Bison were themainstay of many Plains tribes’ diets, whichmeant that as the animals migrated, or movedwith the seasons, many of the tribes moved withthem. As you read about the people who lived onthe Great Plains, you’ll see how they dependedon the bison for more than food.

Tribes of the PlainsThere are more than thirty tribes that make up thePlains Native Americans. The tribes of the GreatPlains all have different languages and customs, butthey also have much in common based on geography.

A Plains tribe family outside their home

Arapaho

Blackfeet

Crow

HidatsaMandanArikara

Missouria

Osage Kiowa

Comanche

Cheyenne

Pawnee

LakotaPonca

Omaha

Otoe

CANADA

RO

CK

Y

MO

UN

TA

IN

S

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Where Buffalo Once Roamed

Bison provided meat, shelter, and tools formany tribes in the Plains. Tribes found uses forall parts of the bison. Almost every part waseaten, including the organs. Bison skin was madeinto clothing, blankets, shoes, shields, andteepees. Their horns were made into spoons orscoops, or used as ornaments. Bison bones were used to make all kinds of tools, weapons,and everyday objects, including runners onchildren’s sleds.

A large family could comfortably live in ateepee, which had a living area about 15 feet (4.57m) in diameter, with enough room to cook duringthe day and sleep at night. The opening oftenfaced east because there was less wind comingfrom the east. When cooking or heating theinside, a smoke flap near the top could beopened to let smoke escape, or closed to keep heatin the teepee during the long, cold winter months.

Not all Plains tribes lived in teepees. Villagetribes—such as the Pawnee, Omaha, andMandan—built more permanent shelters. Theseshelters were built long and low to the ground sothat they could better withstand the strong windsthat whipped across the prairie. Wood, bisonskins, grass, and mud were combined to makehomes and lodges. Large families lived andcooked in the lodge, and there was even enoughroom inside for a horse and the family’s dogs.

Making the Most of a Bison

Hide

clothesquiversdolls

cradlesbeddingshieldsmedicine

bagsrattlesropessaddles

Hair

headdressesornamentsmedicine

Tail

brushwhip

Bones

toolsweaponssled runners

Meat

foodjerky

Hoof

gluerattles

Horns

cupspowderhornspoonsladlestoysornaments

Teepees have small entrances so it’s easy to keep the weather out.

pillowsropeballs

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The hunters were able to shoot the bison withamazing accuracy while their horses weregalloping full-speed through the herd. Sometimesa large group of people riding horses would chase the bison off a cliff, so that the bison fell totheir deaths.

When winter came, the bison would break upinto smaller herds, and nomadic tribes broke upinto smaller groups, too. Nomadic tribes followedthe bison migration throughout the year whilemany tribes living in farming villages stayed inone place for the entire year. During the wintermonths, they lived off the big bison hunt and thecrops they harvested.

In the fall, bison gathered in huge herds—often of more than one million. Fall was the besttime for hunting, and village tribes had theirannual hunts at that time. Nomadic tribes wouldgather in larger groups, setting up camps andcelebrating the bounty of the bison hunt.

Hunters rode out from camp on their horsesuntil they found the bison herd. They would ridetoward the herd until the bison started running.Then the hunters would ride right alongside theanimals, spearing them or shooting them witheither bows and arrows or guns. Bows were madeof wood, with bowstrings made of bison tendons.

Plains Native Americans used many weapons to kill bison.Horses made it easier, no matter what weapon was used.

Herds of bison were chased off cliffs to their deaths, but NativeAmericans would kill only as many as they needed.

Celebrations and Rituals

Members of the Plains tribes often gathered to sing, dance, and celebrate with friends. Oneimportant ceremony was the Summer Sun Dance.The Sun Dance was different from tribe to tribe,but all Sun Dance celebrations focused onthanking the Great Spirit for plentiful food.Because bison was an important food source, it was featured in Sun Dances.

A Sun Dance lasted for several days withnonstop dancing. Dancers also shook their headsand looked into the sun as long as their eyes couldendure it, which could hurt them. They hopedthey’d have a vision at the end of the Sun Danceand that prosperity would come to their tribe.

Horses, Weapons, and Wars

Before Europeans brought horses to the UnitedStates in the 1500s, nomadic tribes moved andhunted on foot. Spanish explorers introducedhorses in the southwestern United States, andthe horses quickly ran wild throughout thePlains. Through trade (and stealing), more tribesbegan acquiring horses. By the 1700s, horses werefully a part of the Plains Native Americanlifestyle, and everythingchanged when peoplehad the speed and powerof these four-leggedbeasts. Members of thePlains tribes becameexcellent horsemen, andthey rode horses intobison hunts and into wars.

Some of the Plains tribes had reputations aswarring tribes. Most of the battles were small,often fought to steal horses from another tribe orto avenge a death. War was seen as a way torestore honor. As the U.S. Army and othersettlers moved west, they posed a threat to the livelihood of the Plains tribes, who fought fortheir right to hunt, farm the land, and preservetheir traditions.

11

Horses are an important partof the Plains tribes’ lifestyles.

Sun Dance

12

The Ghost Dance started among Lakota, or Sioux (sue), tribes who were forced ontoreservations by the United States government.The Ghost Dance recalled days when there weremillions of bison and food was plentiful. It alsotold of a hoped-for time when all the settlerswould be dead, and the Native Americans wouldhave their land back. This dance scared thesettlers who were moving into the Great Plains.

Even today, dances of celebration areimportant to many tribes. One of those dances is the Grass Dance (or Omaha Dance), whichstarted around 1860 in the Omaha tribe, possiblyas a warrior dance. Modern dancers wear outfitswith lots of fringe and ribbon to look like themovement of prairie grass. Early dancers of theGrass Dance may have tied grass to their clothes.Some tribes used the Grass Dance to flatten thegrass before larger tribal ceremonies; others usedit to celebrate victory over an enemy. Now, theGrass Dance is performed in tribal competitions.

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Do You Know?The sound of drums played a powerful

role in celebrations and rituals. Many drums werehanded down in a family from one generation tothe next and were often named and blessed. Olderdrums were made of deer, elk, horse, or bisonhides stretched over hollowed-out sections of logs.

Do You Know?On December 29, 1890, U.S. Cavalry troops at

Wounded Knee (in what is now South Dakota) wereguarding a large group of Lakota people who hadsurrendered. When the Lakota began performing theGhost Dance, it provoked the soldiers, and a bloodybattle broke out. During the battle, two hundred Lakotawere killed by the Army. The murdered Lakota—includingmen, women, and children—were buried in a massgrave. It was the last battle between the Army and tribal people.

Battle atWoundedKnee

Grass Dance

However, the main reason that the Plainstribes eventually lost the wars was probably notthe soldiers. By the timethe U.S. Army reachedmany of the tribes,more than half thepeople had died fromdiseases, such assmallpox. Settlers hadbrought diseases to thePlains—diseases thatthe Indians’ bodies didnot have immunity, orresistance, to.

The settlers and soldiers also killed most ofthe bison on the Plains, and without the bison,many tribes were left without the food andmaterials they needed to survive. The U.S.Cavalry used the method of running bison off acliff to kill hundreds of thousands of bison at atime, leaving them to rot. By the late 1800s, mostof the bison were gone.

Eventually, soldiers and settlers forced most of the Plains tribes onto reservations, or areas of land set aside for them. Often the areas weresmall and were the poorest farming or huntingland in the Great Plains.

The Indian Wars

As settlers from the Eastern United Statesbegan moving onto the Plains to mine, farm, andbuild towns and railroads, they came in conflictwith the Plains tribes. The Plains tribes and thesettlers fought over the land, and there was killingon both sides. Settlers demanded that the U.S.Army defend and protect them. The governmentsent troops to fight the Plains tribes, and thosebattles became known as the Indian Wars.

The Plains tribes sometimes evenly matchedthe soldiers. The tribes knew the land well, and they used guerrilla (ger-RIL-la), or secret,warfare against the soldiers. But the U.S. Armyoutnumbered the tribes, and the Army had morepowerful guns than the tribes had.

1615

Settlers spread disease toNative Americans when theytraded goods.

This depiction shows a U.S. Army troop fighting a Plains NativeAmerican tribe.

Crazy Horse,who was known as Tashunca-uitco, (ta-SHUN-ca-weet-co) was known as aferocious warrior who fought to preserve thetraditions of the Lakota. Crazy Horse stole hisfirst horse before he was thirteen and led his firstwar party when he was still a teenager.

When the U.S. government ordered all Lakotabands onto reservations in 1876, Crazy Horseresisted and led other Lakota to resist, just asSitting Bull did. After almost a year of battles,Crazy Horse saw that his people were strugglingwith the lack of bison too much to continuefighting. He was the last major chief to surrender.

Crazy Horse died in 1877. He did not allowany photographs to be taken of him, but hislikeness is carved into the side of a mountain inSouth Dakota at the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Leaders

Leaders of the Lakotatribes resisted the U.S.government’s efforts to puttheir people on reservations.Three of the most wellknown were Sitting Bull,Crazy Horse, and Red Cloud.

Sitting Bull was known as a courageous leader whofought to protect tribal lands.When gold was discovered in South Dakota in themid-1870s, a rush of prospectors invaded triballands. In 1876, the U.S. government sent troops to protect the prospectors and ordered all Lakotato move to reservations. Sitting Bull refused. Hecalled together other Lakota as well as Arapahoand Cheyenne tribes, and they gathered at LittleBighorn Valley.

On June 25, 1876, George Armstrong Custer of the U.S. Army led his troops into the valleyintending to ambush the Lakota, but Sitting Bulland his warriors were ready. The bloody battleended with the death of Custer and his soldiers.The Battle of Little Bighorn is sometimes calledCuster’s Last Stand.

1817

Crazy Horse Memorial

Sitting Bull

The Plains Native Americans Today

Today, people from many Plains tribes cometogether to preserve their traditions. They holdtribal celebrations, practice speaking their nativelanguages, and work to increase the number of bison.

Native Americans gather together across thecountry for powwows, which are a way topreserve their heritage through dance, music,arts, crafts, and food. Traditional dances havenow become contests for prizes in addition tobeing done to celebrate a bountiful harvest orother occasion.

Red Cloud, whose tribal name wasMakhpiya-Luta (Ma-KAP-ee-a-loo-ta) was animportant Lakota leader who led wars againsttribes of Crows, Pawnees, Utes, and Shoshones.In 1866, Red Cloud began a series of attacks toprotect Lakota land from miners traveling intoMontana. To end the attacks, the Fort LaramieTreaty, which stated that the Lakota wouldabandon the warpath in exchange for money andgoods, was signed. As part of the treaty, RedCloud’s Lakota band was supposed to stay onlyon reservation land. Although Red Cloud is saidto have signed the treaty (marked with an “X”),there’s little evidence that the terms of the treatywere fully explained to the Lakota leader.

2019

Lakota Sioux children at powwow ceremonyRed Cloud

To preserve another ancient tradition, morethan forty tribes, including Lakota, Blackfoot, andCrow, came together to form the Intertribal BisonCooperative. Some of the tribes were enemieshundreds of years ago, but now they are unitedin their efforts to bring bison back to the GreatPlains. The bison reminds today’s tribes of howtheir ancestors lived in harmony with nature; the animals also represent the spirit many tribesare trying to preserve. More than 8,000 bisonhave been reintroduced to tribal lands throughthe InterTribal Bison Cooperative’s efforts.

Many native languages, like the Lakota’s, aredisappearing because young people don’t learn tospeak or use them. Thirty years ago, many Lakotachildren in reservation schools spoke the samelanguage as their grandmothers, grandfathers, and many generations of elders.

One problem with learning the Lakotalanguage is not knowing how to pronounce somewords. People working on The Lakota LanguageProject at the University of Indiana createdcomputer software that students can use to see andhear all the different ways a Lakota word might be pronounced. The program also shows ways a word might be used in different communities.

“We recognize the bison is a symbol of our strengthand unity, and that as webring our herds back tohealth, we will also bringour people back to health.”

—Fred DuBray, Cheyenne River Sioux

Lakota children use computers to learn the language of their tribe.

The bison population isgrowing, but the numbers don’tcome close to the sixty million that once lived.

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Index

Arapaho, 5, 17

Battle of Little Bighorn, 17

bison, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 18, 22

Blackfoot, 5, 22

buffalo, 5

Cheyenne, 5, 17

Crazy Horse, 17, 18

Crow, 5, 19, 22

Custer, George Armstrong,17

diseases, 16

drums, 13

DuBray, Fred, 22

European settlers, 4, 11

Ghost Dance, 14

Grass Dance (Omaha Dance), 13

herd(s), 9, 10

horse(s), 7, 9, 10, 11

hunt(ers), 6, 9, 11

InterTribal Bison Cooperative, 22

Glossary

avenge get back at someone or something for a wrong (p. 11)

bison cow-like animal with shaggy mane (p. 5)

bounty great wealth of goods (p. 9)

endure to live through something painful (p. 12)

guerrilla secretive warfare (p. 15)

immunity resistance to disease (p. 16)

migrated moved with the seasons (p. 5)

nomadic moving from place to place (p. 6)

ornaments decorations (p. 8)

powwows celebrations that include dance, music,arts, crafts, and food (p. 20)

prairie flat land with gently rolling hills andtall grasses (p. 7)

prospectors people searching for gold or otherprecious metals (p. 17)

reservations land set aside for Native Americans (p.16)

teepees tent-like homes used by Plains tribes (p. 6)

tendons cord that connects muscle to bone (p. 9)

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Lakota, 5, 14, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22

Mandan, 5, 7

Missouri River, 4, 5

nomadic, 6, 10, 11

Omaha, 5, 7

Pawnee, 5, 7, 19

powwows, 20

Red Cloud, 17, 19

reservation(s), 14, 16, 19

Rocky Mountains, 4, 5

Shoshone, 19

Sioux, 14, 22

Sitting Bull, 17

South Dakota, 14, 17, 18

Sun Dance, 12

teepee, 6, 7

U.S. (Army) Cavalry,11, 14, 15, 16, 17

Utes, 19

village tribes, 7

war, 11, 15, 16

Wounded Knee, 14

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