A family of Plains Indians in front of their tepee.

Learning Goals: 1.Describe Native American life on the Great Plains. 2.Identify ways Native Americans tried to resist efforts by the settlers to take their lands. 3.Summarize the forces that led to the end of traditional Native American life. Journal: Imagine that you are a reporter for a newspaper. Write a paragraph about the nomadic life of the Indians. You may include in your article information about portable housing (tepees), carrying possessions, transportation (horses), and an understanding of natural resources (buffalo hides and meat).

Journal: Create a totem pole that describes your life. Include an animal that represents you, family, hobbies, friends, and skills. You may draw it for extra credit. You may also come up with an Indian name (you can use your favorite season and animal).

1. The first horses were brought to the Great Plains in the early 1500s by the Spanish.

2. The Plains tribes’ reliance on the buffalo led them to develop a nomadic way of life. What is the definition of nomadic? A buffalo hide yard A buffalo hide yard.

Think-Pair- Share You are a railroad owner that stands to make a lot of money by using your trains to bring in buffalo hunters. On the other hand, you will take a beautiful prairie of buffalo and wild game and turn it into a slaughter ground. Do you make money or protect the land? Think about your answer and then turn to a neighbor and share your thoughts. We will share as a group.

3. The Colorado militia opened fire on a peaceful Cheyenne village at the Sand Creek Massacre.

4. Miners flooded onto Sioux land when gold was discovered in the Black Hills. The Homestake mines and mills in the Black Hills.

Think-Pair- Share Native American peoples did not comprehend the idea of land ownership. In their cultures, natural resources were gifts for all living creatures to share, protect, and conserve. European explorers believed that territory not officially "claimed" belonged to the first to arrive and the strongest group to use exclusively.

Think-Pair- Share If animals and plants of the New World could speak what would they say concerning the possessive and exploitive attitude of Europeans toward the natural environment? Think about your answer and then turn to a neighbor and share your thoughts. We will share as a group.

5. The last major Native American victory against the U.S. Army was the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Panorama of Lt. Col. George Custer's force at Hidden Wood Creek.

6. One reason the Dawes Act failed was because many Native Americans did not want to become farmers. A Sioux camp near the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota.

Think-Pair- Share The railroad opened up the West to Americans. Yet, trains also brought more people to the West which destroyed the culture of Native Americans. Was the train a messenger of death or a means to open up the West? Explain your answer. Think about your answer and then turn to a neighbor and share your thoughts. We will share as a group.

7. The U.S. forces feared the Sioux were preparing for war and opened fire against them in response to the Sioux gathering for a Ghost Dance in 1890.