today we're looking at the great plains people
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covering native american history you've learned about the hohokam and anasazi that lived in south
the southwestern part of what would become the united states and the mississippian who
lived along the mississippi river valley and its tributaries prior to european colonization of
north america now we move to the great plains with many different tribes and communities
that arose throughout the region by 700 a.d many native people had migrated from the southwest
and settled in the great plains region at first they were primarily nomadic people following
whatever food was available but as time went on they began to develop permanent settlements
as they began to develop agriculture focused around growing maize or corn
this created two distinct groups as some tribes were more nomadic moving from place to place
while others were more sedentary or remained in one location
among the nomadic groups were tribes such as the blackfoot cheyenne comanche apache and plains cree
some of the tribes that remained more in one location and glue included the hidatsa iowa mandan
missouri wichita osage and pawnee by 1200 a.d more native people had immigrated into the region
drawn there by the enormous numbers of bison or buffalo roaming the open plains these tribes
developed a nomadic or roaming culture as they followed the migration of bison herds there were
very few long-standing settlements instead they lived in tepees which could easily be taken down
and moved from place to place following the bison the bison became the central resource as it's
truly remarkable to see how the native people wasted nothing after killing a bison first and
foremost the bison was a source of meat but beyond that the fur was used for clothing and blankets
the skin as canvases for the teepees the hooves to make glue the teeth for jewelry the bones for
digging tools and even use some of the bones as eating utensils such as spoons and forks
in the mid-1500s spanish conquistador francisco vazquez de coronado encountered some of the great
plains native americans on his journey exploring the continent in search of gold the europeans that
came in contact with these native people brought with them horses that had gone extinct many years
before in north america it is believed that the comanche were the first to begin to use horses
successfully in the mid-1600s soon after the blackfoot and sioux also began riding and from
there other tribes began taming and using horses the introduction of horses to the great plains
people revolutionized their civilization by the 1700s many of the great plain tribes had become
master horsemen as they used horses in their hunting of bison and in everyday life on the open
plains the different tribes of the great plains people spoke different languages however they did
develop a common system of sign language sometimes called plains sign language that allowed them to
communicate from one tribe to the next another interesting commonality between the plains people
was that most developed forms of ceremonial dance many would perform special dances to call in the
buffalo or a dance to bring good fortune during a coming hunt some tribes such as the crow and
blackfoot had ceremonial dances that were done before planting crops and as i mentioned before
the plains people did not waste one single part of the bison and only hunted what they needed however
in the mid to late 1800s more and more americans began to move west as they followed what they
believed was their manifest destiny or right to settle the entire north american continent there
were really no regulations on hunting of buffalo and within a very short time the new american
settlers had hunted and killed the bison to the edge of extinction it is estimated that during the
1600s there were as many as 30 million bison in the great plains and then by the late 1800s that
number had gone to barely 100 bison living in the wild this severely hurt the planes people as the
bison was again their central source of food and their central resource add to this the fact that
as more americans moved into the region the united states government forced native people from their
land and forced many to move to reservations many of these tribes of plains people still exist today
and generations later these tribes still proudly preserve the culture and traditions of these great
civilizations so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
you