Plains life before the horse

From at least 10,000 years ago to approximately 1100 ce the Plains were very sparsely populated by humans. Typical of hunting and gathering cultures worldwide, Plains residents lived in small family-based groups, usually of no more than a few dozen individuals, and foraged widely over the landscape. The peoples of deep prehistory in this region are referred to as Paleo-Indians, Archaic cultures, and Plains Woodland cultures (see Native American: Prehistory).

By approximately 850 ce some residents of the central Plains had shifted from foraging to farming for a significant portion of their subsistence and were living in settlements comprising a number of large earth-berm homes. As early as 1100, and no later than about 1250, most Plains residents had made this shift and were living in substantial villages and hamlets along the Missouri River and its tributaries. From north to south these groups eventually included the Hidatsa, Mandan, Sahnish, Ponca, Omaha, Pawnee, Kaw, Osage, and Wichita. Some villages reached populations of up to a few thousand people. These groups, known as Plains Village cultures, grew corn (maize), beans, squash, and sunflowers in the easily tilled land along the river bottoms. Women were responsible for agricultural production and cultivated their crops by using antler rakes, wooden digging sticks, and hoes made from the shoulder blades of elk or buffalo. In addition, women collected medicinal plants and wild produce such as prairie turnips and chokecherries. Men grew tobacco and hunted bison, elk, deer, and other game, and whole communities would participate in driving herds of big game over cliffs. Fish, fowl, and small game were also eaten.

Until the horse the only domesticated animals were dogs; these were sometimes eaten but were mostly used as draft animals. Dogs drew the travois, a vehicle consisting of two poles in the shape of a V, with the open end of the V dragging on the ground; burdens were placed on a platform that bridged the two poles. Because of the limitations inherent in using only dogs and people to carry loads, Plains peoples did not generally engage in extensive travel before the horse. However, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s expedition in 1541 reported encounters with fully nomadic buffalo-hunting tribes on the southern Plains who had only dogs for transport.

Before horses became available, intertribal warfare was relatively rare and few battles were deadly. However, a period of exceptional conflict occurred in the 14th century, probably due to the same kinds of drought-induced crop failure that caused the dispersal of the Ancestral Pueblo and Hohokam cultures of the Southwest at approximately the same time.

Plains life after the horse

As the European colonization of North America’s Atlantic coast began, epidemic diseases and colonizers swept across the landscape. Indigenous communities in the path of destruction fled, displacing their neighbors and creating a kind of domino effect in which nearly every Indigenous community in the Northeast shifted location. Eventually, groups as far inland as present-day Minnesota and Ontario were displaced westward to the Plains. Those that eventually resettled on the Plains included the Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, Saulteaux, Cheyenne, Iowa, Oto, and Missouria.

By the mid-18th century, horses had also arrived, coming from the Southwest via trade with the Spanish and the expansion of herds of escaped animals. Guns were also entering the Plains via the fur trade. Plains peoples, whether established residents or newcomers, quickly combined horses and guns to their advantage. Unlike pedestrian hunters, mounted groups could keep pace with the region’s large buffalo herds and thereby support themselves on the grasslands. Most hunters initially chose to use bows and arrows in the mounted hunt, as these provided greater accuracy than early guns. However, as firearms became more accurate, they were readily adopted.

As tribes became more reliant on equestrian hunting, they adjusted their annual round to match that of their primary food source, the buffalo. As a rule, the largest bands or tribes came together en masse only in late spring and summer. During this period the buffalo congregated for calving, allowing hunters to supply enough food to support extensive gatherings of people. During the remainder of the year, the buffalo dispersed into smaller herds, and the nomadic tribes and bands followed suit.

The seasonal round of the village groups may be illustrated by the Sahnish, who planted their crops in the spring, spent the summer as nomadic hunters, and returned to their villages in the autumn for the harvest. After a brief period of hunting in the late autumn, they moved to winter hamlets of a few homes each in the wooded bottomlands, which provided shelter from winter storms. They returned to their villages in the spring to begin the cycle anew.

Dogs continued to be used as draft animals, particularly for mundane and short-distance tasks such as hauling water and firewood from a valley to a nearby village or camp; horses were generally considered too valuable for these activities.

The remainder of this article’s information on traditional cultures refers to the period after the introduction of the horse.