The Plains considered a desert because;

-difficult to cultivate
-very hot and dry
-impossible to live on/uninhabitable

(great plains=grasslands of north american continent lying between the Mississippi river and rocky mountains.

Characteristics of the Great Plains:

-enormous size.
-lack of trees.
-semi-arid: little water available.
-unpredictable weather, including extremely cold and violent winters.
-ferocious winds: the winter 'Northers' and the scorching summer winds.
-many areas flat and featureless.
-inhabited by locusts and grasshoppers.
-inhabited by wolves.

The Native Americans were not one people, but many tribes. The most famous tribes were the Apache, Sioux, Blackfeet and Cheyenne, each one led by its own Council of Elders.

Because there was a need to take care of the women and children of the tribe, marriage was easy. At 17 a youth paid a dowry of horses and took his bride (aged 12-15). The Native Americans practiced polygamy (they had more than one wife), because many men died in the struggle to survive, so there was an excess of women to be cared for.

Native American view of war:

-War was based on ambush and skill (e.g. stealing a tied horse).
-No one was forced to go to war - individual warriors chose to follow the chief to war or not, as they felt best.
-The aim of war was to capture horses and to show bravery.
-The bravest act of war was to score a coup (where a warrior tapped his enemy with a stick and escaped).
-Native Americans scalped their enemy to stop him going to an afterworld they called the Happy Hunting Ground.
-The main aim in war was to stay alive, in order to care for the family (community spirit).