The Plains Indians

The Plains Indians

1. Attitudes towards the land

   • They were nomadic
   • Viewed as sacred
   • The Sioux believed they came from the land like plants
   • Ploughing the land was seen as ripping their mother's breast
   • High places were believed to be close to the spirit world

2. Daily life

   • Girls learnt to keep the home
   • Women cleaned the tipi, prepared food, made clothes and collected water
   • Boys learnt to ride horses and hunt Buffalo
   • Medicine men and women were spiritual leaders
   • The elderly gave advice to the council and passed on history to the next generations

3. Beliefs and religion

   • Circles
     • Circle of nature, physically surrounded by the circle of horizon, the circle of the council, the circle of birth, there was a circle for everything in Indian life
   • Visions
     • The only way to contact the spirit world
     • To enduce visions one had to have food and water restrictions, go to sweat lodges, participate in sundances or menstrate
   • Dances and ceremonies
     • The whole tribe would sometimes need to contact spirits, before hunting they would dance to call spirits to summon the Buffalo, they would celebrate war victories with the scalp dance and young boys would become men in 4 days with the sundance

4. Wars

   • Preparing for wars
     • Rifles were taken or traded by pawnees
     • Horses were used on the front line for speed and were decorated with handprints to represent their warrior society
     • Shields made from Buffalo neck were held on the left arm and were decorated with magical symbols
     • Feathers were used to show previous acts of bravery: a notch on the black tip was for scalping but a black tip with a red spot was for killing
     • A coupstick was used to touch their enemies with as it was a sign of bravery
     • An amulted was used as medicine granting spiritual protection to the warrior
     • Warriors painted their bodies in magical colours for protection
   • Why fight?
     • To steel horses, gems, captives and etc
     • To join a society or to win a wife
     • To get hunting land
     • Revenge
   • Warfare
     • No formal declaration
     • A series of attacks, no more than 3 times a year
     • Warriors didn't leave during the winter