Masaryk University
Faculty of Education
Department of English Language and Literature
The culture and life of the Indians of the Great Plains
Bachelor thesis
Brno 2007
Mgr. Zdeněk Janík, M.A. Mgr. Linda Libenská
1 Content:
1. Introduction...... 2
2. General information on the Indigenous People of North America ...... 3
3. The Indians of the Great Plains ...... 5
3.1 The general characteristics……………………………………………………5
4. The history of the Plains Indians...... 9
4.1 The influence of the buffalo on the life of the Plains Indians………………10
4.2 The role of the Big Dog……………………………………………………….12
4.3 The intertribal contacts among the Great Plains Indians…………………15
4.4 The trade between the white man and the plains tribes……………………19
4.5 The impact of trade, buffalo and intertribal wars on clothing……………21
4.6 The religion, spirits and ceremonies…………………………………………24
4.7 Language………………………………………………………………………30
5. The Plains Indians today ...... 33
6. Conclusion...... 35
7. Bibliography ...... 36
8. Appendix...... 38
9. Resume...... 43
2 1. Introduction It is difficult to characterize one race of people because the world is full of people of different nations. Humans form the civilization. People differ in appearance, language, culture, customs and other features that make each individual unique. I have decided to write my final paper on the life and culture of Plains Indians. This group of North American Indians is rapidly losing the traces of the aboriginal character and is destined to become assimilated with the ‘superior race’. This was said about native people of North America, about Indians. The indigenous were living on their lands till ‘white people’ came and took over the power and changed their lives. My final paper outlines the general information on the Indians in the first chapter. The second chapter is focused firstly on the general characteristics of the Plains Indians and then on the description of the individual tribes. The next chapter discusses the history of the Indians of the Great Plains, the hunting tradition, trade, religion and language. There are described the main events and circumstances that have influenced the life of the Plains Indians. The present situation of the native people is the subject of the fifth chapter. The appendix contains a piece of poetry, a short story about the creation of the Sioux, the number of Plains Indians today and some Plains vocabulary. The image of the aboriginal Indian that comes to mind today is of some painted apparition who lived in a far distant past. It means more than one hundred years ago. Yet the past is only yesterday.
3 2. General information on the Indigenous People of North America At the time of European discovery of the North American continent was the area occupied by several million people who came to be called Indians. Columbus who discovered America named them like this because he thought he had reached India. The following account of the general characteristics of North American tribes is based on E. Curtis “In a Sacred Manner We Live”. In this book Curtis describes the origin of the Indians and their migration over the years. The ancestors of the Indians came in the end of Pleistocene 20,000 – 45,000 years ago. They migrated across the land bridge from Siberia, through Bering land bridge to America. The immigration took thousands of years and was interrupted by the increase of the Sea level and the submersion of the Bering land bridge. The Indian is a general name for native people of America except for Inuits. They are members of a Mongoloid yellow brown race. They have a yellow brown skin, straight, black, stiff hair, dark eyes, and thin hairy, salient facial bones. The variety of Indian people, languages, culture, housekeeping forms, social organizations and religions was high. There existed many forms of them from hunters, pickers to nomads. The Indians spoke several hundred different languages that anthropologists later classified into some fifty eight language families. The cultures of the Indians were equally various, usually closely adapted to the different ecological areas in which they lived the eastern forests, the Plains, the mountains and deserts of the Great Basin and the Southwest, the forests of the Northwest Coast. Early European influence impinged on the Indians from the Eastern Seaboard and from the South through Mexico. The impact was dramatic and usually disastrous for the Indians. The Spanish impact into the south west began in 1540. The firm establishment of Spanish rule in the 1600’s had a profound effect on the Puebloan and other peoples living in what is now Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas. Indirectly, there was also an effect on the tribes of the Rocky Mountains and the High Plains through the spread of horses to tribes in those areas after 1680. One result of the spread of horses was the conversion of many farmers dwelling along the rivers of the
4 High Plains into nomadic buffalo hunters. Many inhabitants of the northern and central Rockies and the adjacent High Plains were well equipped with horses and sometimes guns, long before they had any systematic contact with Whites 1. The first monitoring was made by Lewis and Clark in 1803 05. Thomas Jefferson dispatched Lewis and Clark to North America to find a water route and explore the uncharted West. He expected they would encounter woolly mammoths, erupting volcanoes and a mountain to pure salt. What they found was no less surprising. They discovered Indians all the way to the Pacific Ocean equipped with horses. Therefore, by 1800 Indian culture in North America had in some areas been drastically changed by the animals and firearms introduced by Whites although only east of the Mississippi and in the South west were various Indians in direct and continued contact with Whites prior to that time. (Curtis 19) The westward expansion of Whites changed all this. Between 1800 and 1890 the inexorable westward movement and “civilizing” of the trans Mississippi area and the Far West by Whites changed Indian life completely. Every tribe was affected. Populations declined drastically from warfare and introduced diseases. By 1890 the numerous and varied independent nations of Indians were no more. The survivors had become wards of the government, herded into reservations, small islands in a sea of alien culture. Only in limited areas, such as the South west, were Indians able to retain some measure of their cultural integrity and political independence. (Curtis 20)
1 E. S. Curtis uses the capital letter while talking about Whites in his book “In a Sacred Manner We
Live.”
5 3. The Indians of the Great Plains
3.1 The general characteristics J. Wolf provides the characteristics of Indians in his book describing the nations of the whole world. Each overview presents typical features of the tribe, comments on the language of individual ethnic groups, on the development of the tribe during the invasion of people from Europe. J. Wolf does not differentiate the Plains Indians according to their style of living. He shows only general description of the tribes. Other sources such as the wikipedia encyclopedia or the chapter “In the Days of the Ancestors” by Colin Calloway in the book “Through Indian Eyes” divide the Plains Indians into two broad classifications, which overlap to some degree. (Calloway 24) The first groups were fully nomadic, following the vast herds of buffalo. They are said to have been part of the Buffalo Culture. Some tribes occasionally engaged in agriculture growing tobacco and corn primarily. These included the Blackfoot, Arapaho, Assiniboine, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Lakota, Lipan, Cree, Sarsi, Shoshone and Tonkawa. The second group of Plains Indians, the semi sedentary tribes, in addition to hunting buffalo, lived in villages and raised crops. These included the Arikara, Ioway, Mandan, Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Ponca, and Wichita. (Calloway 25, http://en.wikipedia.org ) The Plains Indians are these tribes on the basis of J. Wolf findings: Blackfoot: Warrior tribe of northwestern plains. They used Algonquian language. It is the name for three North American tribes who lived on the plains and prairies between Saskatchewan and the Missouri River. The origin of their name comes from the black moccasins made of buffalo skin they were wearing. They hunted buffalo. (Wolf 68)
6 Dakota {Sioux}: Also called Sioux. The dominant tribe that was living on the high plains near Fort Laramie. The name Sioux refers to a large group of Native Americans speaking a common or similar language. They are often divided into three groups based on their geographic distribution. In the 1800’s the Western group, called the Lakota or Teton Sioux, were the dominant tribe in the region around Fort Laramie. Several bands, the Oglala Sioux, the Brule Sioux, the Hunkpapa Sioux, and the Menneconjou Sioux represented them. The Lakota Sioux were nomadic people who hunted the buffalo that roamed the high plains in huge herds. The buffalo provided them with food, clothing, the covering for their dwellings, and the raw material for many of their tools. The Sioux could be peaceful or, when the occasion demanded, they could be formidable warriors. The spiritual power, Wakan, and the Summer Sun Dance ceremony played important parts in their lives. They used to live first in the South and North Dakota. They settled down in the reservations after the victory in the battle of the Little Bighorn, which was lead by Sitting Bull. Most of Dakotas changed their way of living from hunting to agriculture. Their dialects was varying in use of d, a, l, distinguished eastern Dakota, central Nakota, western Lakota. Crow. (Wolf 73) Cheyenne: The well known north Algonquians that played a part in the pageant of Ft. Laramie. Originally from what is now northern Minnesota, they had migrated to the high plains by the early 1800 and ranged from the Missouri River in the North of the Arkansas River in the South. They were divided into two branches, the Northern Cheyenne and the Southern Cheyenne. The Northern group spent much of their time on the high plains of Colorado and Wyoming, not far from Fort Laramie. (Wolf 68) Comanche: A well known tribe of the Plains Indians living in the northwest part of Texas now. They were originally living in Wyoming. They learned to ride a horse and they were also the first buffalo hunters and warriors using the horses. They spoke the same language as the Shoshone. (Wolf 141) Pawnee: One of principal Caddoan tribes. They were valley farmers with complex rituals. (Wolf 128) Hidatsa: Missouri farmers. They are sometimes called Gros Ventre, also Minitari, and Rees. Their language was close to that of the Crow. They settled at the upper part of the Missouri River. They were strongly influenced by their neighbors the Mandan. They adopted the main features of their culture and agriculture. (Wolf 101) 7 Omaha: They used to live at the mouth of the Nebraska River and at the middle stream of the Missouri River. They became the Nomads and buffalo hunters in the 17 th century. They were well known warriors and they were frequently at war with the Sioux and many of them died in those wars. They spoke a Siouan language called Dhegiha. (Wolf 192) Ponca: Noted today as singers and dancers. They spoke a Siouan language called Dhegiha. (Wolf 202) Iowa: One of the last woodland groups to adopt Plains culture; speakers of a Siouan language called Chiwere. (Wolf 116) Osage: Farmers who spoke a Siouan language called Dhegiha. They were often at war with plains and woodland neighbors. (Wolf 194) Caddo: They belong to Hoca Indians. They were later influenced by middle American agricultural cultures. They were key intermediaries in early horse trading with northern tribes. They gave name to Caddoan language family. (Wolf 128) Apache: They used to live in the northwest of the USA and in the north of Mexico. They acquired the horse riding and lay down the basis of the way of life of the Plains Indians. They were one of the bravest warriors in the fights between Indians and white men. It is a group of tribes speaking very similar Athapaskan languages. (Wolf 35) Shoshone Bannock: They were also called the Snake Indians. They used to live in the Rocky Mountains. We can distinguish two branches, the north branch and the southwest branch. Groups with few sharp boundaries between dialects and cultures; language related to that of the Ute. (Wolf 229) Arapaho: The Arapaho, although a distinct tribe were very similar to their close allies the Cheyenne. Like the Cheyenne, they spoke an Algonquin language and were originally form what is now northern Minnesota. They migrated westward and divided into Northern and Southern branches. The Northern branch lived on the high plains and was more relevant to the historical events played out at Fort Laramie. The Arapaho were mounted bison hunters who depended on the buffalo for much of their livelihood. They also celebrated the Sun Dance. (Wolf 37) 8 Assiniboin: A large Siouan tribe speaking Nakota variety of Dakota; in Canada called “Stoney,” perhaps from custom of using hot stones to boil foods. Their lands spread from North Dakota to the Assiniboin River. (Wolf 41) Mandan: They were settled Siouan farmers. They used to live at the upper stream of the Missouri River. They were great potters. (Wolf 163)
9 4. The history of the Plains Indians The following findings of the history of the Plains Indians are based on the life and culture of most of the tribes introduced in the previous chapter. Among others these were Blackfoot, Dakota, Cheyenne, Comanche, Pawnee, Hidatsa, Omaha, Ponca, Iowa, Osage, Caddo, Apache, Shoshone Bannock, Arapaho, Assiniboin and Mandan. The history of the Plains Indians is very long and was framed by changes in the life of the Plains Indians. I will introduce the main features of their life. It means the hunting, trade among the tribes and the white men, wars, clothing style and also the influence of the buffalo and horse. Being short, I will highlight what was typical for them while they were living on the prairies. I will use some of the words of John Ewers. What we know about the history of the Plains Indians has been put together from old Indians’ reminiscences recorded by white men in the 18 th and 19 th centuries and from elderly Indians who lived in the 20 th century and remembered parents’ and grandparents’ accounts of life without the horse. One of the best sources was Weasel tail that died in 1950, when he was about 90 years old. As a young man, he had managed to go deeper into the past by talking to old Indians. (Ewers 256) This chain of memory leads us back to the time of a pedestrian society adapted to the movements and habits of the Indians’ prey, the buffalo. The strategy of the hunt called for a tribe to separate into bands each made up of 20 to 30 families, many probably with blood ties. During most of the year the hunting bands moved from camp to camp, in the wake of millions of buffalo that ranged in great herds across the grasslands. (Ewers 259) When a band moved camp, scouts set out ahead, watching for game or enemies. All able bodied men and women, along with all children big enough to keep up, walked. Mothers bore infants on their backs. Men, carrying only their weapons, protected the flanks and rear. Women, children, and dogs formed the centre of the moving camp. Each family transported its own belongings. The tipi, a conical lodge made of poles and buffalo hide cover, was the heaviest family possession. Dogs hauled it.
10 A strong dog could drag about 75 pound on the Indians’ carrier, the A shaped, wooden travois. This weight limit would keep the size of the lodge cover, and thus the size of the lodge, to around six or eight buffalo cow skins. The rest of the goods furnishings and household utensils were lashed into bundles or put in skin sacks. These burdens went on the travois or on the backs of the dogs or women. The dogs were not good pack animals. They fought, chased rabbits, or took off to lap up water to nearby lakes or streams. Their antics slowed down the march, as did the burdened women and the old and feeble. The latter usually were carried on a special litter made by lashing cross poles between two travois pulled by a pair of dogs. If a march had to speed up for some reason, the aged and the infirm might be abandoned. At best, marchers could not expect to make more than five or six miles a day. (Ewers 260) 4.1 The influence of the buffalo on the life of the Plains Indians The Plains Indians had one main food source, buffalo. It had another name as well, “bison”, which came from Spaniards. The Indians called it buffalo. Although they hunted other animals, like elk or antelope, bison was by far the most plentiful food source throughout their area. The camp was migrating to the place where was the chance to find and hunt buffaloes. When the camp was set up, the hunt began. Henry Kelsey, the first white known to have met Indians on the northern plains, told of the hunt in 1691 and Jay Miller recorded his talking: “…when they seek a great parcel of them together they surround them…which done they gather themselves into a smaller Compass Keeping ye Beasts still in ye middle and so shooting ym.”(Kelsey, 1961: 187) There were several techniques of hunting and killing of this animal. Jay Miller describes some of these methods. (Miller 188) The Indians killed these strange, shaggy wild cattle with bows and arrows. The Native Americans would surround the bison, and then they would try to herd them off of cliffs or into places where they would be more easily killed. A commonly used technique was the Piskin method. This was still one of the methods about 1750,
11 according to Weasel Tail, who told what he had learned of those days before the Blackfoot got the horse. After the men located a herd of buffalo, the chief told all the women to get their dog travois. Men and women went out together, approaching the herd form downwind. The women placed their travois upright in the ground, spacing them like fence posts and tying them together to form a semicircular barricade. The women and dogs hid behind it while two men upwind from the herd stampeded the animals toward the fence. Other men closed in, forcing the buffalo together to mill as they neared the flimsy barrier with its frightening chorus of shouting women and barking dogs. Now the men rushed, shooting arrows and plunging lances into the maelstrom. After the kill, the chief counted the dead animals, divided the meat equally among families, and allotted the hides. (Miller 189) As the seasons of the year were changing the buffaloes were looking for the better places to stay. When the winter was approaching the animals were migrating to the woods. Jay Miller describes another technique used by the Indians for hunting. In late autumn, as the buffalo headed to wooded areas for the winter, the Indians of the dog days changed their tactics. They felled trees and, usually at the bottom of a hill, made a crude three sided corral, studded with sharpened stakes set at an angle so the points would impale buffalo that tried to break out of the corral. At the base of the hill the Indians laid poles smeared with manure and water. When the mixture froze, it created a surface too slippery for the animals to tread if they attempted to escape by climbing out. Before the men of the camp began driving a herd into the corral, supernatural power “medicine” was invoked by the owner of the beaver medicine bundle. He took sacred “buffalo stones” from the bundle, prayed, and sang songs to have a successful hunt. (Miller 193) After the herding and the kill, the camp chief supervised the division of the meat. Each man who killed a buffalo was given its hide and ribs. The slaughtered animals were cut into quarters, which were divided among the families in the camp. Each family, whether it was large or small, received an equal share. (Miller 194) 12 The Plains Indians used up everything from the buffalo as Edward S. Curtis mentions in his book. They pursued the great herds across the grasslands and did not have a permanent residence anywhere. Troops of dogs moved with them, dragging tent poles and bearing burdens. The skins of the cattle did not give only shelter but also clothes and shoes, rope and wool. They made thread of the buffalo’s sinews, awls of its bones, and jugs of its bladder. Even the dung was used for fires. These strange Indians seemed to live on buffalo meat, roasting it over the dung fires or eating it raw. They drank the blood just as it came out of the cattle. (Curtis 21) But not only buffalo played an important part in the life of the Indians of the Great Plains. People from Europe introduced them another animal that had a huge impact on their lives. It was a horse. 4.2 The role of the Big Dog The Indians found another name for the horse. They called it the Big Dog. The Plains Indians were sometimes called the horsemen because of the fact that horses helped them in their everyday life to find food, while hunting and migrating. The Indians who first saw the four legged creatures from the white man’s world more likely feared than coveted these animals. The awe the Indians must have felt is echoed in 18 th century. It was around 1730 when the first Indians saw the horse. They all admired this animal. “Numbers of us went to see him and we all admired him. He put us in mind of a stag that had lost his horns; and we did not know what name to give him. But as he was a slave to Man, like the dog, which carried our things, he was named the Big Dog .” (The Indian of Sioux tribe 1993: 256; emphasis added) The historical record offers us some dates that pinpoint the acquisition of the horse by various tribes. J. Ewers provides the chronology when the horse appeared in the lives of the Indians. (Ewers 260)
13 In 1687 white men in east Texas watched Indians lancing buffalo from horseback. In 1739 French traders saw horses brought to Mandan villages by nomadic Indians, presumably from farther south. Tribes of the north western plains had the horse before Anthony Henday, the first white man to visit the Gros Ventre, accompanied some of them on a buffalo hunt in 1754 and praised their skill as horsemen. Surely the Crow on the Yellowstone had owned horses for several generations before the first white man penetrated their country in 1805. By 1800 the horse frontier reached the northeastern border of the Great Plains. (Ewers 261) Edward Curtis comments on the role of the horse in the life of the Indians. He talks about the impact of the horse and about all changes that appeared with coming of this animal. As the Big Dog came into the lives, undoubtedly by intertribal trading, the Plains Indians were transformed from plodding followers of the buffalo into a pastoral people concerned with the breeding, daily care, and protection of large herds of domesticated animals. The horses came to perform many roles in the social life of the Plains Indian. With the horse came new values, a new standard of living. They became standards of value in trade, and high stakes in gambling. Horse races replaced foot races as popular sports. Families began to measure their wealth in horses. Gifts or exchanges of horses were involved in arranging marriages. Sometimes a murderer could avoid punishment by giving horses to the family of his victim. Horses were slain at the grave of a dead warrior as assurance that he would not be left alone in the spirit land. Tribes would reckon their history from the time they acquired the horse. A new household industry sprang up with coming of the horse. Women made and decorated wooden, rawhide covered saddles and fancy rawhide harnesses. The women also fashioned dress clothing that would make the wearer look impressive on horseback, on ceremonial occasions, or when paying visits to other tribes. For the nomadic tribes the horse was godsend. Most of aged Blackfoot 2 informants offered mythological explanations of how their tribe had been blessed with this gift. Horsepower enabled Indians to move farther, faster, and with much heavier
2 Blackfoot: the full description of this tribe is written in the chapter that deals with the general
characteristics of the Plains tribes
14 loads. Packing 200 pounds on its back or hauling 300 pounds on a travois, a horse could move four times the burden of a heavily loaded dog and could travel twice as far in a day. And the horse could save lives. A Pawnee chief told a French trader in 1724 of his tribe’s desperate need for the horse because their wives and children die under the burden of moving camp. The horses helped the Indians to carry the cargo. Dried meat and tallow in greater quantities filled the parfleches slung on packhorses. The parfleche, an envelope of waterproof rawhide, was part of the richly decorated luggage that began to come into fashion. Chokecherries and berries, picked in the autumn and dried for winter use, were carried in buffalo calfskin bags. Trail lunches of pemmican (thin slices of buffalo meat, dried cooked, pounded fine, and mixed with melted fat and berries or cherries) were packed into bags hung from the saddles of the horses that the women rode. (Curtis 23) John Ewers links the use of horse by the Great Plains Indians with an image the outside world has had of an American Indian generally: that of a tall man, clad only in a feathered bonnet, breechclout, and moccasins, astride a horse. Indians of other areas may protest that a brave on horseback does not truly symbolize their particular tribal cultures. But this heroic image does personify the picturesque Plains Indians during that relatively brief yet highly dramatic time when they were at the height of their power. In that period after they had acquired the horse and before they lost their tribal independence they were among the finest horsemen and ablest mounted warriors in the world. (Ewers 263) So the horse, which literally lifted the Plains Indian off his feet, was much more than larger dog or an animated tool. Its presence became felt in so many aspects of Indian life that it brought a true cultural revolution, not just a revolution in transportation. In dog days gardening tribes had enjoyed less arduous, more secure lives than did the nomads. But the possession of both a buffalo and horses enabled the aggressive hunters to become the dominant tribes. Wars and fights for horses were frequent among the tribes. The next chapter deals with this topic of inter tribal relations and conflicts. 15 4.3 The intertribal contacts among the Great Plains Indians I commented in details on the life of the Indians with the buffalo and horse. But it must be written more about the life on the prairies. I concentrate on trading and wars among the Indians in this chapter. The life on the prairies was tough and sometimes led to struggle for life. Quarrels and disputes were common among the tribes. White men recorded almost all wars and also trading traditions. One of the recorders was Ross Bennet who talks about the goods that the Indians were trading with. The Plains tribes had been extensive traders before they met the white men, as shown by archaeological finds of marine shells from the Pacific and Gulf coasts in prehistoric village sites on the Missouri in the Dakotas. In historic times the Indians also knew what they wanted, and they did not have to be cajoled into trading for their wants: deadlier weapons, sharper tools, and more durable kettles than they could make from the materials of their own country. They were no less attracted to the milder tobacco, colorful glass trade beads, and woven cloth they receive in return for their furs and buffalo robes. (Bennet 158) The villagers raised abundant crops, part of which they traded for meat and hides brought by nomadic hunters. The aboriginal trade pattern encouraged both nomadic hunters and village farmers to produce more than they needed. (Bennet 162) But not all of the intertribal contact between particular tribes such as Blackfoot Indians was peaceful in 1787. The English trader David Thompson obtained a lively account of their warfare with the Shoshone on the northwestern plains about a half century earlier. In those days before the horse, the greatest damage was done when a large force surprised, attacked, and massacred a small hunting camp of ten to thirty lodges. They were all killed and scalped, the women and children captured. The women probably became the wives of the victors, and the children were adopted into the conquering tribe. The Mandan were also sharp traders and cleaned the Assiniboin out of everything they had in the way of guns, powder, ball, knives, axes, and awls goods that the nomads had acquired through contact with the white man. .
16 Assiniboin hunters north of the Missouri River still did not have the horse in 1738, but they killed enough game that year to feed them and provide buffalo products for trade. That winter Pierre de La Vérendrye, a French fur dealer, accompanied Assiniboins to busy trade centre fortified Mandan villages on the Missouri. His records tell of villagers exchanging corn and beans of which they have an ample supply for dressed skins trimmed and ornamented with plumage and porcupine quills, painted in various colors, also white buffalo skins. (Bennet 165) Times changed since the Indians had horses. As was said in the previous chapter, Indians praised the horse very much. Edward Curtis talks about the trade with horses. I will use some of the words of E. Curtis and J. Ewers and center on the battles and wars among the tribes as well. J. Ewers writes about the larger battles among the Indians. He also describes the weapons used by the Indians. Sometimes the tribes fought larger battles with opposing forces of nearly equal size, numbering in the hundreds. The warriors were content to form lines facing each other, barely within arrow range. Kneeling behind rawhide shields three feet in diameter, they shot arrows at each other until darkness came; the battle usually ended in a stalemate with few casualties on either side. The principal weapon in such warfare was the longbow, which came up to the chin of a standing bowman. Warriors on both sides also carried lances, knives, and clubs. But these shock weapons were wielded only if one side so outnumbered the other that the larger force seized the advantage and closed with the enemy. (Hill et al. 85) E. Curtis gives a detailed account of the raids and notices the varied weapons the horsemen used. Indians with no riding experience would hardly have stolen their first mounts. As the amount of time needed for hunting drastically decreased, due to the coming of the horse, men found more time on their hands for feasting, ceremonies and warfare over horses. Since only a few hunters were needed to supply meat for a band, other young men could raid enemy camps for horses or join war parties. The big shield the longbow, the rawhide body armour, all of which would impede a warrior on horseback, were discarded in favour of a smaller shield, a shortened bow, and men and horses stripped for action. Charging down upon the enemy, 17 mounted Indians wielded their shock weapons in man to man fighting. Casualties were high, but close combat offered greater opportunities for men to acquire war honors, which were graded according to the degree of courage, required to win them. One of the informants agreed that the taking of an enemy’s weapon, especially a gun, earned the highest Blackfoot war honor. Scalping an enemy brought honor of the second rank and the capture of a horse from an enemy honor of the third rank. Though some Indians said the killing of an enemy warrior should outrank the taking of a scalp, others did not even mention killing as a recognized honor. After all, a gun or arrow could kill from a safe distance; a man might scalp an enemy slain by someone else. Possession of trophy was taken as proof of man to man courage. In fact, namachani , the Blackfoot term for war honor, meant “a gun taken.” Another superlative deed was coup , or the touching of an enemy. When warriors “counted coup ” they would also accept for scoring the capture of an enemy’s ceremonial pipe, war shirt, war bonnet, shield, or bow. A wound in battle rated as only minor honor, though a disabled warrior was well cared for by his people. The horse raid, which could last for weeks, became the most common kind of war action. The objective was horses, not the taking of scalps or the killing of enemies. Members of a Blackfoot raiding party were volunteers, usually for to twelve young men. Raiding offered sons of poor families their best chance for economic security and social advancement. Their leader was a mature man whose past successes inspired confidence in his ability to lead his group to an enemy camp, capture horses, and return with all his followers. (Curtis 25) Jay Miller describes some ceremonies that were carried out by the Indians before the raiding party set out. The night before the raiders are to set out, they drum on a piece of buffalo rawhide and sing their war songs. Other young men who wish to be taken along on the raid join in the singing. As the singers move about the camp, friends and relatives give them presents of food and moccasins. The raiders check their war medicine bundles and their weapons. They will leave on foot at dawn. A war medicine bundle contained objects that were sacred symbols of the owner’s powers, bestowed by supernatural forces. Ask where he got his war medicine and a Blackfoot would almost always name an elder: “Three Suns gave me an owl 18 feather for my hair.” Another says, “Tail Feathers gave me a coyote skin painted red to wear around my neck. A coyote sees a long ways and never misses shat he goes after.” Or, “My father gave me a song and the skin of a blackbird which I tied on my head.” Most war medicines consisted simply of a feather or a bunch of feathers worn in the hair. Light and compact, feathers were practical objects for travel. (Miller 219) Let us follow our raiders now as they leave their camp. They move out at a steady pace, in no particular order, stopping occasionally to rest and smoke. They will walk about twenty five miles a day for a few days. But, as they near enemy territory, they advance more cautiously, traveling at night and hiding out by day. Each man carries extra moccasins, an awl and sinew for repairing them; one or two rawhide ropes, each with a honda, or eye, at one for forming a lasso; a small pipe and tobacco; his personal war medicine; perhaps a whip and a wolf skin. A man’s belongings are wrapped in an old lodge cover, a piece of rawhide, or a trade blanket, rolled, tied with rawhide rope, and carried on his back. In a bag worn over one shoulder is a pack of dried meat or pemmican. (Miller 220) The raiders carry no shields, lances, or war clubs. Their weapons are bows and arrows, sometimes guns, and knives sharp enough to cut firewood and timber for temporary shelters. These war lodges will be built as the raiders approach the enemy camp. They will spend a few days there, killing enough game to live on for the rest of their journey. The lodge, made of timbers covered with brush and bark, will conceal their fire and serve as a fort in case of surprise attack and as a base for scouts, who, usually camouflaged in wolf skins, seek out the enemy. (Miller 221) While this subchapter dealt with the contacts among the Indian tribes, this means trading and wars, the following part is about the contact of the Indians with the world of the white man.
19 4.4 The trade between the white man and the plains tribes As the white men appeared in the life of the Indians of the Great Plains the trade spread and new goods were exchanged. People from Europe changed the life of the Indians deeply. First, the Indians considered the white man as a trader, not an enemy. There was no need to fear them. The specialist in the Plains Indians culture John Ewers talks about trading between Indians and Europeans. During the 1850’s Spaniards were trading horses to Plains Apaches at Pecos in exchange for their Wichita slaves. While Plains Indians traded horses northward and eastward from the Spanish southwest during the 18 th century; they also dealt in inanimate objects from the white man’s world, bearing them southward and westward from peripheral English and French outposts. These trade goods, accepted or modified by their recipients, became another factor in the reshaping of Indian culture before the mid 19 th century. (Ewers 285) Europeans first attracted the Indians with the goods used not for fighting but for making objects of everyday life. Along with horse as a trade commodity, another valuable goods appeared, the gun. The main purpose was to use it for fighting and shooting, but as the range of materials spread the range of weapons spread as well. No other manufactured article was more coveted by the Plains Indians than the gun, although they feared it when they first heard the muzzle loading flintlock fired. The Sioux could not understand this noisy metal rod that discharged a deadly missile so fast that the eye could not follow its flight. Believing there must be a spirit within the gun, they called it “medicine iron.” But fear of the gun was short lived. (Ewers 286) Equal exchanges of one gun for one horse occurred in the early intertribal trade. Then, as white traders began doing business directly with tribes of the plains, the beaver pelt, and later the buffalo robe, became standards of value for all articles the whites offered. At Hudson House on the Saskatchewan River in 1795 a dressed beaver pelt would bring an Indian twelve iron arrowheads or a pound and a half of gunpowder or two bayonets. 20 Plains Indians wanted a light, cheap, serviceable weapon. They got it in the Northwest trade gun, furnished with a large guard around the trigger so that a mittened finger could pull it. The Indians retained the silent arrow for hunting and used the gun primarily in warfare; a warrior speeded up reloading by carrying lead balls in his mouth and spitting them down the barrel. To lighten the gun is cut several inches off the barrel; the excess iron was used to make arrowheads and tools. Old gun barrels were transformed into skin dressing tools, tobacco pipes, or courting flutes. These were traditional signaling devices used by lovers. (Ewers 294) The introductions of trade goods from white men produced drastic changes in handcrafts. A metal arrowhead, lance heads, tomahawks, and axes; files, awls, needles, and scissors the new goods rendered traditional weapons and tools obsolete. As metal kettles appeared, pottery making eventually disappeared even among sedentary tribes. Indians learned to use chisels and files to make arrowheads. They often hit the chisel with a stone, not an iron hammer. They made pipe drills from scrap metal, dug pith from ash wood pipe stems with heated rods. (Curtis 28) The trade between the Indian tribes and white men did not limit itself to horse, guns and other goods. Intermarriages between Indian women and white men often took place. The relationships between the Europeans and Indians turned into something different. To get on well together the both sides had also other goods, the Indian brides and white husbands. At scattered posts throughout the plains many a chief’s daughter became the bride of a prominent trader in a marriage that brought the bride security and her father special favors from her white husband. The clerks and common laborers at the posts also took Indian wives. Their marriages contributed growing numbers of Indian white children to tribal groups. By the early 19 th century communities of mixed bloods were established. The best known was the Métis of the Red River Valley of Manitoba. They wore colorful cloth garments garnished with floral designs, grew crops, and conducted well organized, months long buffalo hunts whose kills numbered in the thousands. On their hunting trips the mixed bloods triumphantly fought off war parties of full blooded Sioux. (Ewers 296) 21 4.5 The impact of trade, buffalo and intertribal wars on clothing The tribes used similar style of clothing. It differed in details. Everything was subordinated to the weather conditions. The way that the Plains Indians got dressed was not much developing until the white men entered North America continent. Joy Miller describes how the clothing was changing during the time. Clothing style seemed to have changed during the fur trade period, partly due to white influence. Men of the Upper Missouri tribes probably did not adopt the breechclout until cloth was introduced. The breechclout of soft leather was hanging down, before and behind, over a narrow belt tied around the waist. The breechclouts used as a part of ceremonial costume were wider and longer, often ornamented with bead or quillwork on the pendant ends. All men and women were equipped with a buffalo robe, which was used in every season. Moccasins with separate rawhide soles may have been unknown among Plains Indians before they saw white men’s shoes. Women’s fashions were also transformed. Their dresses were made of two oblong pieces of hide or cloth, superimposed one on the other. They were sewn or laced together lengthways, at the sides, except for a space of about eight inches at the top where the material was doubled to form an ornamental flap in front and back. In the north, women had been wearing a long slip made form the skin of a deer or mountain sheep and supported by shoulder straps; full, separate skin sleeves were added in cold weather. On the southern plains, where the climate was milder, a woman’s basic body garment was a buckskin miniskirt. Wichita women painted or tattooed their breasts. For special occasions and in winter a southern woman donned a short poncho made form a single deerskin with a hole cut in the centre for the head. Then, as the 19 th century progressed, in the north appeared the long dress that cloaked the upper arms, and tribes in closest contact with the advancing frontier of white settlement began covering up in cloth garments adapted form white styles. The earliest photographs of Plains Indians, taken in the mid 1840, show Iowa men and a woman wearing calico shirts and trade blankets. (Miller 216)
22 John Ewers broadens the idea of clothing with the connection of art. He writes about the clothing during the different occasions in the lives of Indians. The vitality aspect of art is evident in the creation of war shields. Made of thick animal hides laced to wooden hoops, these shields protected warriors from enemy arrows and lances with the power inherent in their imagery. Like war shields, Plains clothing was charged with intensely personal symbolism, often discovered through visions. The Ghost Dance movement of the late nineteenth century provides a tragic example of faith in the power of image making. Ghost dancers believed that their shirts would protect them from the bullets of the U.S. Army. With the exception of Ghost Dance shirts, clothing was crafted primarily by women, while ornaments were made by men. Often, the work was sacred. Some tribes formed societies and guilds whose members fulfilled these spiritual tasks. In traditional times, clothing designs were usually completed in porcupine quills, which were dyed with mineral and plant colors and embroidered directly onto clothing. Geometric patterns were the most common, but with the arrival of trade beads on the Plains during the nineteenth century, curvilinear patterns began to appear, perhaps borrowed from Eastern Woodlands floral motifs. (Hill et al. 67) Prominent warriors of many Plains tribes wore headgear with animal horns attached. Most commonly these were buffalo horns or thin sections of horns paired, one at each side of the headdress. Perhaps the headdresses were intended to impart to their wearers the qualities of strength and courage of the buffalo. In pre reservation days, a Sioux, Numakiki (Mandan), Hidatsa, or Assiniboine warrior wrapped himself in a robe made of the whole skin of a buffalo. Many robes were painted. One might bear figures of men and horses in action, representing how the owner won war honors, the scenes painted by the owner or another man whom he believed to be a more gifted artist. Or a robe might bear a large, colorful design composed of concentric circles of triangular feather motifs. Women, the masters of geometric art among the Plains Indians, painted this pattern. There is some evidence that the women did not draw all these hundreds of tall triangles freehand, but outlined those using triangular wooden templates. Most geometrically painted men’s robes had a central element, which represented the sun. The concentric circles of feather elements radiating from it symbolize a war 23 bonnet. The designs on early nineteenth century robes were generally painted in two colors black or dark brown, and red and were outlined in size, a clear, gluey liquid made by boiling hide scraps. But as the century progressed, painters tended to use more colors, obtained from traders. (Hill et al. 68) Indian women used a number of ingenious techniques to decorate clothing and other things with porcupine quills. One quite distinctive method involves wrapping quills around a core or filler of horse hair. Crow women made beautiful decorations in quill wrapped horsehair on clothes and moccasins. (Hill et al. 69)
24 4.6 The religion, spirits and ceremonies The Plains Indians had many kinds of religion. The big influence on the thinking of the Indians had the white man. J. Ewers suggested how big the influence was. He also outlined the main features of the Plains’ religion. Pioneer missionaries, stationed at or near the trading posts, sought to make Christians of Indians with little success. The gulf between Christian and Indian beliefs could not be bridged easily or quickly. A Catholic missionary found this out when warriors came to him eager to be baptized, but on their terms. They told him they looked upon baptism as a powerful war medicine that would help them to conquer any enemy whatsoever. The priest refused to baptize them. (Ewers 296) Plains Indians clung to their traditional belief that supernatural powers of the sky, the waters, and the land surrounded them and that these powers were far stronger than the natural powers of the man. They believed in a good and Supreme Being, and in Evil Spirit, and recognized the existence of inferior good and evil spirits. The Plains Indians believed in underwater spirits who controlled all animals and plants. Above the sky, they believed that there was an upper world ruled by the Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds were the most powerful of the birds. Sun and thunder were mighty sky spirits. Beaver and great serpentlike monsters were underwater ones. The Indians believed that birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians also possessed supernatural powers and that these powers could be communicated to human beings. The Indians believed that spirits could control their health. The Plains Indians honored and greatly respected the spirits they believed in. The Indians honored the spirits with the creation of their medicine bundles, Medicine Pipes, and religious ceremonies. (Ewers 298) They trusted in a future state of existence, and there were no infidels among them. Superstition among swayed them powerfully, and special men called medicine man, were their physicians, priests, and prophets, who, on all occasions used incantations. Christian missionaries have labored among them in many places, from the time the Spaniards and Frenchmen settled in America until now. (Ewers 299)
25 Mary Jane Lenz characterizes the spirits of the Indians more deeply. She writes about the communication between the spirits and the individual Indian. There is also the difference how she called the highest God of the Plains Indians from the name used by John Ewers. In Lenz´s view, the religion is bound up not only with worshiping gods but with the inside view of the spirit as well. Anthropological studies of Plains Indians indicate that each individual was protected by a guardian spirit, in addition to tribal spirits, with that he or she could communicate. A young Blackfeet Indian, for example, might seek the identity of his individual guardian by fasting and praying in a seclude place of spiritual significance; frequently the spirit was revealed through a trance or vivid dream. Plains cultures are not pantheistic 3. They believed in an all watchful Sky Father who resided in the high realm. Individuals sought spiritual guardians in the middle realm the domain of eagles, thunder, lightning, sun, stars, and moon. Among some Plains societies, the earth was also a central power and presence in the universe. (Hill et al. 66) There are many rituals of different Indian tribes and cultures. They served to help in everyday life. I will concentrate on some of them that were thoroughly described by John Lame Deer. Lame Deer is his Indian name. John Fire is his English name. He himself was a medicine man in the Sioux tribe. He talks about medicine bundles, holy animals and other objects and prayers that helped the Plains Indians to gain special power. (Fire 34) A special ritual took place among young man. The purpose was to obtain supernatural powers. A young man sought a gift of a piece of supernatural power by going alone to a hilltop or other isolated spot. There he fasted and called upon all the powers of sky, earth, and water to take pity upon him. “Hear, Sun,” he might ask. “Hear, Old Man above People, listen; Underwater People, listen.” He fasted and thirsted until, exhausted, he slept.
3 Pantheism means the unity of the God and the world, their sameness. Jiří Linhart at al. ”Slovník cizích
slov”
26 If he were fortunate, the power would come in a vision. An animal, a bird, or some force of nature, such as thunder, appeared to him, usually in human form, and offered him some of its power. The spirit a man bird apparition of a hawk, say showed him certain sacred objects and told him how they should be made, cared for, and manipulated to bring him success and protect him from harm. He would henceforth see the hawk as a medium of the vision spirit, and he would keep in his medicine bundle a cluster of feathers or some other manifestation of the hawk. (Fire 36) The suppliant also received sacred songs, face paint designs, and instruction in the rituals and taboos associated with the ownership and use of that power. Thereafter the man had the right to paint a likeness of his supernatural helper on the cover of his tipi and on the front of his shield. He could also transfer some power to other men who failed in their quest for visions or whose own powers had not proved helpful. Men who obtained their powers from the same source formed cults and performed ceremonies honoring their benefactor. These men gained the Bear Cult. This kind of cult flourished in many tribes. Bear power was considered particularly potent in war and in the curing of ills. Cultists’ face paintings resembled claw scratches, and some members carried into battle sharp, double edged knives with grizzly jaw handles. These men were thought to be short tempered and dangerous just like bears. Wolf power also especially served in warfare. War songs were wolf songs. Raiding party scouts wore wolfskin disguises. Elite Comanche warriors were called wolves. These brave men carried straps of wolfskin with which they tethered themselves to pegs on the battlefield, determined to die rather than retreat. The Sioux, Crow, and Assiniboin sought elk power as a love medicine. The Sioux called their courting flutes “elk whistles” because they had heard the bull elk in rutting season calling females with his flutelike whistle. Indians preserved the umbilical cords of their children in small, decorated cases shaped like turtles, snakes and lizards because these were considered long lived creatures that would endow their songs and daughters with long lives. Beaver men –“those who have powers over the waters” kept the huge Blackfoot beaver bundle that contained also the skins of many animals and birds. The beaver man also kept the tribal calendar, counting the months and foretelling spring. When food was
27 scarce, the people asked him to open his huge bundle and perform his buffalo calling ritual. To learn all its songs and acts in their proper sequence was an intellectual feat. An old beaver man taught the ceremony to a younger man to pass it to the next generation. (Fire 38) The religious beliefs of the Plains Indians may have helped them live in cautious harmony with nature, but not at peace with their fellow man. They sought supernatural power to protect them from their enemies and to bring them victories. Indeed, some medicine men were famed for their powers to kill or maim members of their own tribe whom they or their patrons disliked. The Cree were especially feared for their witchcraft. Benevolent and malevolent symbols hung from the centre pole of the Teton Sioux Sun Dance: the rawhide figure of a buffalo, which the Teton depended upon for life, and the figure of man the enemy, whose power to harm the tribe had to be controlled for the tribe’s survival. (Fire 42) The subchapter concludes with a detailed description of the most important Indian ceremony the Sun Dance. According to Colin Taylor the Sun Dance was the major tribal ritual during the mid 19 th century. The ceremony served to thank the sun for past favors and to petition for protection and future blessings. Details of the long, complex ceremony differed from tribe to tribe. This ceremony took four days in which singers, drummers, dancers and spectators gathered to seek communally the sort of power that they sought as individuals in their private vision quests. (Taylor 42) Jay Miller suggests that the Sun Dance appeared around 1700, possibly originating with the Cheyenne. To the Plains Indians, however, the ceremony was ageless a divine gift from the supernatural world. In any case, by 1750 virtually every Plains tribe practiced some variation of the Sun Dance. To the Cheyenne it was known as the New Life Lodge, to the Ponca it was the Mystery Dance, to the Sioux it was the Gaze at the Sun Dance. (Miller 211) I will use a Colin Taylor’s detailed description of this ceremony. All Plains tribes practiced similar variation of the Sun Dance. 28 The most difficult vow to fulfill and hence the one most likely to bring about the desired result, was the pledge to give a Sun dance. This occasion was the outstanding event of the ceremonial calendar. Large encampments, often of several bands, gathered in June or July to participate. It was the time for a great spurt of social activity; other dances were held gambling and games went on continually; it was the ideal period for courtship. The term for the Sun dance was Thirsting Dance, so called because the participants did not drink during its duration. The dance was initiated in fulfillment of a vow. The pledger, always a man, either had his own Sun dance songs or else induced a man who did own such songs to conduct the ceremony, i.e., to lead in the singing. Any spirit power might grant the right to give the Sun dance, but usually it was Sun or Thunder. The pledger chose four assistants who sang with him on the night of three new moons preceding the date set for the ceremony. The fourth and final preliminary singing took place in an enlarged tipi on the night before the dance. In the morning, a party of scouts set out to find a tree for the centre pole. They acted as though they were seeking an enemy, and when they had found a suitable log, came back to camp and reported. A party went out, cut the tree, and brought the centre pole into camp. The lodge was built and an altar set up at the north side. (Taylor 48) Then they started dancing. The dancing continued for several days and nights. Many cloth and smoke offerings were given during this period. A general gift giving occurred near the end of the dance. The ceremony was concluded by a procession in which everybody filed out of the lodge after touching the centre pole. The pledger went out in the evening to find a buffalo skull. He wrapped it in a cloth offering and carried it back to the lodge. The skull was deposited on a bed off sweetgrass braids. The pledger took a rattle, addressed the supernatural, and led the singers in his own power songs. Then they built a small fire near the tree, washed and painted their faces, put their war gear. At the tree, sweetgrass smudges and pipe offerings were made. They sang songs and during the singing they cut it down. Setting up forked poles, about seven feet high, made the walls of the Sun dance lodge. The nest was attached to the centre pole by one of the pledger’s assistants. Bundles of brush were fastened in the fork of the pole and long cloth offerings attached to them. Guns, clothing, and sometimes stuffed images of spirit powers were hung on it. Leafy boughts
29 and tipi covers enclosed the side walls and were occasionally placed over the roof. The dancers sat behind this fence and grasped it while dancing. (Taylor 49) Men who had vowed to do so were tethered to the centre pole. Skewers were passed through the flesh of their breasts and lines attached the skewers to the pole. These tortures were offerings to the spirit powers and were only done in carrying out a vow. Bits of skin might be cut out as offerings, and a finger, usually the little finger, chopped off for the same purpose (Taylor 50). Religion and its outside expression through rituals and ceremonies cannot be done without communication among those involved in the religious activities. The following part deals with what lies in the centre of any communication, which is language and its use.
30 4.7 Language The language of the Indians of the Great Plains differs according to culture, religion and geography. An overview of the languages used by the Indians of the Prairies is in the chapter three along with the general characteristics of the Indians. Other factors that formed each of the Great Plains Indians´ languages should be also examined. One of them was the use of sign language. The Indian nations had many different spoken languages so sign language was an important way the tribes communicated with each other. Signs were used by hunting parties and for surprise attacks on their enemies. Explorers and fur traders also used sign language. Each tribe used different signs. The sign language means the communication by means of gestures with the use of hands and body movements. But Indians developed also other forms of communication. A smoke signaling was one of these. Indians apparently employed combinations of long and short puffs to represent such messages as the presence of buffalo or the approach of enemies. (www.saskschools.ca) Wallace L. Chafe describes the language as “the poetry of motion”. He pictured the Indians as the buffalo hunters who were able to roam the plains, trade, make treaties and tell hunting tales and legends without uttering a word. Sign language, derived from pantomime, gave them a medium of fluency and grace. Plains Indians lived to discourse with the deaf. Another interesting point of view made by Chafe is the attitude of Europeans to the language of Indians. They often mistakenly concluded that Indian languages were somehow more “primitive” than those of “civilized” Europe. Indians, it was alleged, could not express general concepts, and therefore used several specific terms where Europeans might employ one generic word. Cherokee, as in other Indian languages, a single word may incorporate all the elements of a sentence. And the word can vary to indicate the tense and grammatical mood of the verb, as well as the person, gender, and number of the subject and object nouns. Far form primitive, such languages show a grammatical complexity, which can take a lifetime of scholarship to unravel. (Chafe 152)
31 The richness of vocabulary depended upon its importance to the community. The Plains Indians used many words connected with ceremonials. As white men came to the prairies the Indians borrowed many words from their languages. Languages are remarkably adaptable. The horse, unknown when the Spanish landed, soon took on a central role among many tribes, and words for the horse and is many uses were introduced. One device was to borrow some form of the Spanish word caballo. Another was to invent a descriptive term. Borrowing worked both ways. English acquired Indian words for many plants and animals. (Chafe 153) Tom Hill differentiates the language of the Indians and English in the usage of verbs and nouns. Language, like religion, both shapes a culture's world view and is shaped by it. Plains´ languages are verb oriented and focus on action (as opposed to English, which is noun oriented and focuses on the object). In Plains languages and therefore in Plains thought everything is in constant flux or motion. Everything is animated, everything is equal to the person, and everything has a spirit. To Plains artists and their communities, the designs on objects were vital, having life and spirits all their own. (Hill 15) Wallace Chafe´s words concluding the subchapter, illustrate the significance of a language for the survival of a culture. The white man has destroyed many fine and beautiful things on America continent, not the least of them the rich cultures that had evolved here for unknown millenniums. Language is the lifeblood of a culture. When the last speaker of a language dies, a wonderful tradition of thought and expressive power, extending from the infinite depths of man’s history dies too. (Chafe 1993: 154) The words by Wallace Chafe could be used not only for the Indians, but also for all the tribes and nations whose language is disappearing. 32 The chapter dealt with some of the most fundamental aspects of life and culture of the Indians of the Great Plains. Among these are buffalo, the use of horse, clothing style, religions and religious ceremonies, and the use of language. The history of the Indians of the Great Plains reveals that the life and culture of these people had never remained intact but came under the heavy outside influence: the Indians´s contact both among the tribes themselves and with the white men shaped their tribal cultures and life tremendously. The following chapter briefly informs about the life condition of the Plains Indians today.
33 5. The Plains Indians today
There are roughly three hundred Indian Reservations in the United States. An Indian Reservation is a piece of land that has been given over to Native Americans. They do not have full power over the land, but they do have limited governmental rule. Not every state in the United States has an Indian Reservation, and not every Native American tribe has one. There are also Indian Reservations in Canada, however they are set up and run a bit differently than in America. President Ulyssess S. Grant set up the first Indian Reservations to help settle the growing conflict between the Native Americans and the early settlers. There has always been a great deal of conflict and controversy about Indian Reservations and how they came about. The truth is that the Native Americans were there first and Indian Reservations were set up to give them a piece of land, whole the settlers set up new rules and laws and took over the land. Some of the new laws had prohibited the Native Americans from hunting and continuing life in the manner they were accustomed to. Besides hunting, many of the early settlers were setting up new plans to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. However, without the ability to hunt and gather food, as they were accustomed to, many of the Native Americans became bitter as they were forced off their lands and told to become farmers. Many of the early Indian Reservations were resistant to farming and some of the Native Americans faced starvation. Unfortunately, it has been estimated that some of the Indian Reservations are home to the country’s poorest citizens. This is a tragedy that has occurred in the fabric of the USA. Many Indian Reservations have built up a prosperous economic system for themselves through legal gambling and casinos. Many of South Dakota’s tribes operate casinos. Visitors can step off the windswept prairie and into flashy gaming halls filled with slot machines and poker and blackjack tables. In addition to games, the casinos offer lounge entertainment, motels and RV parks, and good food at great prices. (www:nativeweb.org) The Plains Indians ultimately lost most of their land to the U.S. But many did survive, and they carried on their lives and traditions. For instance, despite U.S.
34 government laws against Native American cultural events during the 1800s and early 1900s, tribes maintained a variety of ceremonies and dances in secret. After the ban was lifted in 1933, tribes joined together to rebuild their traditions, creating the modern “powwow”. At the powwow, many members of one or more tribes come together for dance contests, music, arts and crafts, and fun. One of the important traditions shared among Plains Indian tribes that continues today is the sweat lodge. The sweat lodge is a small dome made of willow branches covered with blankets and hides. One participant in the ceremony brings heated rocks into the sweat lodge, placing them in a center pit. So the lodge becomes very hot. As the leader of the ceremony throws water and herbs on the rocks, participants pray, sing, and drum. After sweating for a long time, everyone leaves the lodge and cools off by lying on the grass. This ceremony for cleansing body and spirit is still important to Native Americans, and has been adopted by many non native groups as well. The sweat lodge is not the only example of Plains Indian culture active in today’s U.S. Schools like the Plains Indians cultural Survival School of Alberta, Canada teach tribal culture to native students. Native artists and craftspeople produce everything from paintings, jewelry, and literature to traditional clothes that incorporate European fashions. Organizations such as the Intertribal Bison Cooperative that includes many Plains Indian tribes, are working to return the buffalo to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Nowadays the majority of the Plains Indians do not know how to ride the horse, they do not even know their own traditions, teachings or ways. And it is a shame because someday their children and grand children will ask what their purpose is on Grandmother Earth. The Smithsonian Institution operates in Washington D.C. Its task is to preserve the past of the USA. It received a $10 million donation in 1994 for the new National Museum of the American Indian. The Indians of the Great Plains have a big exhibition there among other Indian tribes. Even though they lost much, they were never defeated. Plains Indians and their culture are very much alive. (http://www.ustrek.org/odyssey)
35 6. Conclusion
The paper focuses on certain features and aspects of culture and life of the Plains Indians. Their history is very long and culture differs from tribe to tribe. It is impossible to comment on everything in short. It centers on the most important aspects, which is the Indian’s ceremonies, rituals, their environment and habitations, their industries as well as everyday customs. The purpose of the paper was to outline their life in the past and also comment on their present situation. As for the past of the Plains Indians I proposed to focus on all features which were typical for this language group. There were some events that influenced the life of the Plains Indians inevitably. The first event that can be found in the past is finding an animal, a buffalo. This animal provided not only the source of food but also other necessary things such as its skin, bladder and even its dung. The Indians made shoes, ropes, clothes, jugs and fire from the parts of the buffalo’s body. The second event or circumstance that had a big impact on the lives of the Plains Indians was the arrival of the white men. Some of the things connected with the arriving of the Europeans were positive, but it can be said that most of them were negative. Besides taking over the land, breaching the promises and contracts, the white man introduced another animal to the Indians, a horse. The Indians called it the Big Dog. The Big dog helped them in hunting, fighting, in moving the camp, in their everyday life. The Plains Indians together with other indigenous people created the history of the USA. The number of native people decreased dramatically in the past. But the red man did not disappear. Though tribes shattered and were scattered and squeezed into reservations, the Indians have endured. Even though they have changed their dress, economies, housing, speech, even somewhat their ritual life, still they are Indians. As each European country constantly protects their nation, also the Indians prove their endeavour to preserve their culture.
36 7. Bibliography
BENNET, R. Farmers and Raiders. In J. BILLARD (ed.), The World of the American Indian (pp. 255 310). Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1993. CALLOWAY, Collin. In the Days of the Ancestors. In J. CASSIDY (ed.), Through Indian Eyes: The Untold Story of Native American Peoples (pp. 8 33). New York: The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 1995. CHAFE, W. A Richness of Words, A Babel of Tongues. In J. BILLARD (ed.), The World of the American Indian (pp. 150 156). Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1993. CURTIS, Edward S. In a Sacred Manner We Live. New York: Barre Publishing, 1972. ERDOES, Richard. American Indian Myths and Legends. New York: Pantheon Fairy Tale&Folklore Library, 1984. EWERS J. Horsemen of the Plains. In J. BILLARD (ed.), The World of the American Indian (pp. 255 310). Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1993. FIRE, John. Chromý Jelen . Lame Deer (Orig.). Translated by Josef Porsch and Ladislav Horáček. Praha: Paseka, 2004. HILL, Tom et al. Creation’s Journey. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997. LINHART, Jiří at al. Slovník cizích slov. Litvínov: Dialog, 2004
37 MILLER, J. Land of the Buffalo. In J. CASSIDY (ed.), Through Indian Eyes: The Untold Story of Native American Peoples (pp. 186 221). New York: The Reader’s Digest Association, Inc., 1995. TAYLOR, Colin F. et al. Mýty a legendy indiánů severní Ameriky . Translated by Zuzana Mayerová, Stanislav Novotný and Ladislav Šenkyřík. London: Volvox Globator Salamander Books Limited, 1995. WOLF, Josef. Abeceda národů . Praha: Horizont, 1984. http://www.nativeweb.org/ 1 December 2006 http://www.saskschools.ca/ 1 December 2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_Indians 4 December 2007 http://www.ustrek.org/odyssey 13 June 2007
38 8. Appendix
Plains Vocabulary The tribes of the Plains Indians used a lot of vocabulary that was typical for each tribe. I am mentioning the most used vocabulary. Breechclout: A piece of soft leather hanging down, before and behind, over a narrow belt tied around the waist. Buckskins: Softened deerskin. To make it more flexible, Plains Indians rubbed it with a mixture of softened brains and liver. Hide: A raw, untanned animal skin. Loin Cloth: A strip of soft, tanned skin or cloth, which was worn by men between their legs; it was folded over a belt at the front and back. In battle it was considered brave to capture an enemy’s loin cloth. Medicine Bundles: A collection of objects and materials which the Indians believed had spiritual power. Nomads: People who travel from place to place, usually following animals for food. Parfleches: A tough bag or box made form rawhide with the hair removed. It was usually painted or decorated and the Plains Indians used it to carry food and a variety of items. Preserve: To dry meat, fruit and vegetables. The Plains Indians did this to stop the food from rotting so that it could be kept for a long time. Quill work: An ancient sewing technique that uses dyed porcupine quills or occasionally bird quills for decoration. Rawhide: Dehaired and cleaned hide. It is as flexible and workable as cloth when wet, but becomes hard and stiff when dry. Teepee: A portable tent made of buffalo hides cover and wooden supporting poles. (www .saskschools.ca)
39 The list of tribes and numbers of people Arapaho: They live now in the reservations of North Dakota and Minnesota in the USA. There are 3,200 people. Apache: 25,000 Indians live in the northwest reservations of the USA. They are very popular due to Karel May who made them heroes of his books. Assiniboin: In the present there are only 3,000 of them living in reservations in the north of the USA and in Canada. Cheyenne: The number of them is around 6,500. They live in small groups in reservations of inner part of northwest of the USA. Blackfoot: There are 10,000 of them living in reservations on the borders of the USA and Canada. Dakota: There are around 100,000 of them together with related tribes of Mandan, Hidatsa, Iowa, Assiniboin. They live in several reservations of the USA and Canada. The number of Dakota is 35,000. These Indians live in reservations of North and South Dakota. Comanche: 4,500 of them live in several reservations in Texas. Hidatsa: Many of them died in chickenpox epidemic in 1837 and their tribe joined Mandan tribe. In the present they live in a small group with Mandan in the cities of North Dakota. Omaha: A number of them were killed in fights with Sioux. Only 1,000 Indians live in reservations near the Great Lakes in Canada. Caddo: The chickenpox epidemic decreased their number from 20,000 to 200. They live in the present in the northeast of Texas. Pawnee: They live together with Apache and Caddo on the plains of Western Oklahoma. There are 2,000 people. Shoshone: Many of them remained in the comparison with other tribes. 65,000 Indians live in the Rocky Mountains in Utah and Colorado. (http://www.nativeweb.org/) 40 Indian myths, legends and poetry All native people preserved a lot of stories and poems from their life. They are about love, spiritual, animals, heroes, human creation, and world creation and about everything what can people create through their imagination. I have chosen one story told by the Brule Sioux and one poem by the Apache. How the Sioux Came to Be This story was told to me by a Santee grandmother. A long time ago, a really long time when the world was still freshly made,Unktehi the water monster fought the people and caused a great flood. Perhaps the Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka, was angry with us for some reason. Maybe he let Unktehi win out because he wanted to make a better kind of human being. Well, the waters got higher and higher. Finally everything was flooded except the hill next to the place where the sacred red pipestone quarry lies today. The people climbed up there to save themselves, but it was no use. The water swept over that hill. Waves tumbled the rocks and pinnacles, smashing them down on the people. Everyone was killed, and all the blood jelled, making one big pool. The blood turned to pipestone and created the pipestone quarry, the grave of those ancient ones. That’s why the pipe, made of that red rock, is so sacred to us. Its red bowl is the flesh and blood of our ancestors, its stem is the backbone of those people long dead, the smoke rising from it is their breath. I tell you, that pipe, that chanunpa, come alive when used in a ceremony, you can feel power flowing form it. Unktehi, the big water monster, was also turned to stone. Maybe Tunkashila, the Grandfather Spirit, punished her for making the flood. Her bones are in the Badlands now. Her back from a long, high ridge and you can see her vertebrae sticking out in a great row, of red and yellow rocks. I have seen them. It scared me when I was on that ridge, for I felt Unktehi. She was moving beneath me, wanting to topple me. Well, when all the people were killed so many generations ago, one girl survived, a beautiful girl. It happened this way: When the water swept over the hill
41 where they tried to seek refuge, a big spotted eagle, Wanblee Galeshka, swept down and let her grab hold of his feet. With her hanging on, he flew to the top of a tall tree which stood on the highest stone pinnacle in the Black Hills. That was the eagle’s home. It became the only spot not covered with water. If the people had gotten up there, they would have survived, but it was a needle like rock as smooth and steep as the skyscrapers you got now in the big cities. My grandfather told me that maybe the rock was not in the Black Hills; maybe it was Devil’s Tower, as white men call it that place in Wyoming. Both places are sacred. Wanblee kept that beautiful girl with him and made her his wife. There was a closer connection then between people and animals, so he could do it. The eagle’s wife became pregnant and bore him twins, a boy and a girl. She was happy, and said:“Now we will have people again. Washtay, it is good.” The children were born right there, on top of that cliff. When the waters finally subsided, Wanblee helped the children and their mother down from his rock and put them on the earth, telling them:“Be a nation, become a great Nation the Lakota Oyate.” The boy and girl grew up. He was the only man on earth, she the only woman of child bearing age. They married; they had children. A nation was born. So we are descended from the eagle .We are an eagle nation. That is good, something to be prod of, because the eagle is the wisest of birds. He is the Great Spirit’s messenger; he is a great warrior. That is why we always wore the eagle plume, and will wear it. We are a great nation. It is I. Lame Deer, who said this. (Lame Deer 1969) 42 TOMORROW We have wept the blood Of countless ages As each of us raised high The lance of hate…. Now let us dry our tears And learn the dance And chant of the life cycle Tomorrow dances behind the sun In sacred promise Of things to come for children Not yet born, For ours is the potential of truly Lasting beauty Born of hope and shaped by deed. Now let us lay the lance of hate Upon this soil. Peter blue cloud The short piece of poetry by a Sioux Indian can illustrate the way of thinking of native people.
43 9. Resume Tato bakalářská práce pojednává o životě a kultuře prérijních Indiánů, jedné ze skupin Indiánů Severní Ameriky. Práce se zabývá obecnými informacemi o Indiánech, dále charakterizuje prérijní Indiány a jejich jednotlivé kmeny. Historie prérijních Indiánů, jejich tradice, obchodování, náboženství a jazyk jsou zde také popsány. V bakalářské práci jsou vyzdviženy nejdůležitější události, které ovlivnily život prérijních Indiánů. Závěrem se práce zabývá životem prétijních Indiánů dnes. V příloze je uvedena báseň a příběh napsaný jedním z Indiánů Siouxského kmene, ilustrující život prérijních Indiánů. V této části jsou také zapsány jednotlivé počty prérijních Indiánů z dnešní doby a některá slova používaná těmito kmeny. Bakalářká práce je také srovnáním života prérijních Indiánů před více než sto lety a tím, jak žijí dnes. This bachelor thesis comments on the life and culture of Plains Indians, the group of North American Indians. The final paper deals with the general information on the Indians, characterizes the Indians of the Great Plains and their individual tribes. The history of the Plains Indians, their traditions, trade, religion and language are described here as well. There are outlined the main events and circumstances that have influenced the life of the Plains Indians. The life of the Indians today is discussed at the end of the paper. The appendix contains a piece of poetry and a story written by the Indians of the Sioux tribe as the illustration of the life of the Plains Indians. The number of Plains Indians today and some Plains vocabulary are listed in the appendix. The bachelor thesis compares the life of the Plains Indians more than one hundred years ago and their life today.
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