The cultures clash on the prairie

Native Americans ways of life excised on the great planes. The Osage and Iowa tribes hunted, planted and settled small villages near the lower Missouri river. Further north tribes such as the Sioux and Cheyenne gathered wild foods and hunted buffalo. People of the plains, according to tribal law, traded and produced beautifully crafted tools and clothing.

The Spanish brought horses to New Mexico in This changed the Native Americans way of life. As the natives acquired horses and guns they were able to travel further and hunt more efficiently. By the mid 1700’s almost all tribes have left their farms to roam the plains and hunt buffalo. Their increased mobility often lead to war when hunters in one tribe trespassed onto another tribes hunting grounds.

Native Americans lived in small extended family groups that spoke the same language. Young men trained to become hunters and warriors. The women helped butcher the game and helped prepare the hides that the men brought back. Sometimes young women could choose their husbands. Plain Indian tribes believed that powerful spirits controlled events in the natural world. Men or women who showed particular sensitivity to the spirits became the medicine man or women.

All children learned proper behavior and culture through stories, myths, games, and good examples. No individual was allowed to dominate the group. The leaders of the tribe ruled in council and not by force. Land was open to all members of the tribe.

As a child sitting bull was known as Hunkesni, or slow. He earned the name sitting bull after a fight with the crow, a traditional enemy of the Sioux. He led his people by the strength of his character and purpose. He was a warrior, spiritual leader, and medicine man. He believed that the whites should leave Sioux territory. His most famous fight was at the little bighorn river. His opponent was George Armstrong Custer.

Sitting bull said “they tell me I murdered Custer. It is a lie he was a fool and rode to his death.” After his surrender to the federal government he was killed by the native police at Standing Rock Reservation in December 1890.

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