1. Horse Culture of the Plains Indians
10\3\16

2. Before the bell Comp book Pen or pencil
What you need
What to do
Comp book
Pen or pencil
Turn in your letter to Queen Beebee
Copy the objective
Be in your seat ready to begin

3. Legend of the Buffalo
I will now tell you the legend of the buffalo, a legend of the Plains Tribes.
Please pay attention as you will have to answer questions about the legend.

4. Legend of the Buffalo Once upon a time, a long ago, a horrible monster
stole all the buffalo from
the plains and put them
in his mountain hideout.
"There," beamed the monster. "I have enough food to last forever."

5. Legend of the Buffalo
Coyote, a wild dog, called all the people and all the animals together in a great meeting to figure out what they could do. No one had an idea. They were too afraid of the monster to think at all.

6. Legend of the Buffalo
"I scouted the monster," Coyote spoke up. "He lives with a very small boy."
"We cannot hurt a child," said one of the people. "Not even to get back our buffalo."

7. Legend of the Buffalo
"That is understood," Coyote nodded. "But I was thinking .... a small boy must be very lonely with no one to love except a horrible monster. I think we should give him a pet to love. When the chance arises, the pet we send can set the buffalo free." All the people and all the animals thought that was a marvelous idea.

8. Legend of the Buffalo
First, they sent Mouse to win the heart of the small boy. The boy liked Mouse and took him home. But the monster told the boy to send Mouse away. Next, the people sent Killdeer, a bird. But the bird fared no better.

9. Legend of the Buffalo
Coyote called another meeting. "I think," Coyote told all the people and all the animals, "that I must go myself.“

10. Legend of the Buffalo
That very day, Coyote set out for the monster's lair. When the boy saw Coyote, his eyes brightened. The boy loved Coyote immediately and took him home. The monster was very angry. "Get that mangy dog out of here before I eat you both!"

11. Legend of the Buffalo
The boy and Coyote ran out of the lair. The boy sat down. He tried not to cry, but a tear ran down one cheek. Coyote licked it away.
"Poor dog," sighed the boy. "I bet you're hungry.” Coyote put back his head and
howled. That is the sound
Coyote makes to comfort you.

12. Legend of the Buffalo
The buffalo heard Coyote's cry. It frightened them. They began shuffling and stamping their feet the way buffalo do when they are nervous.
The more the boy cried, and the more Coyote howled to make him feel better,
the more frightened
the buffalo became.

13. Legend of the Buffalo
One buffalo became so afraid that he began to run. The other buffalo ran after him. They ran and ran until they had scattered all over the plains. The monster ran after the buffalo.

14. Legend of the Buffalo
While the monster was gone, Coyote took the small boy to live with the people. The monster hunted and hunted, but the buffalo had scattered without a trace. Late that night, when the monster returned to his lair, young warriors were waiting. They killed the monster, much to the relief of one small boy and all of the people and all of the animals.

15. Legend of the Buffalo
That is why the elders say it is Coyote to whom we owe the buffalo. Even today, the people still give thanks to clever Coyote. If it had not been for the smart head and warm heart of one little dog, that horrible monster would have kept all the buffalo for himself forever.

16. In your Comp book write 3 sentences explaining :
Think about it
In your Comp book write 3 sentences explaining :
What this legend tell you about the connection of the Plains Indians and the buffalo.

17. The Plains way of Life
Most Plains people were not farmers. They were hunters and gatherers. The women took care of the children, made the clothes, and gathered wild vegetables. For most of the year, the men wandered the prairies in search of food. The men traveled great distances and hunted on foot.

18. The Plains way of Life
When they killed game, they cooked and dried food wherever they were, and carried home as much as they could on foot, dragging food behind them piled on buffalo skin.

19. The Plains way of Life
The coming of the horse changed their life considerably. Horses are not native to the United States. When the Spanish arrived in the New World, they brought horses with them. Some of those horses escaped. Some found their way into the Great Plains.

20. The Plains way of Life
When the Plains People first saw horses, they called them mystery dogs. These early people were smart an adventurous. It did not take them long to realize that if they could catch a horse, they could ride a horse. It might have started as a game, but it soon became a way of life.

21. The Plains way of Life
The Plains People could travel many miles in one day on horseback. They could hunt more effectively. They could haul skins and food home more easily, and in bigger quantities as horses could drag large loads.

22. The Plains way of Life
Soon, each family had ample skins to make much larger teepees. They happily moved out of earth homes made of mud, and into huge tepees made of wood poles covered with buffalo skins. They loaded their families, their goods, and themselves on horseback, and followed the buffalo.

23. The Buffalo
Did you know that the bison (or buffalo) is the biggest land animal in North America? They can weigh more than 2,000 pounds—that's as much as a car! So how did Indians hunt and kill them—without guns?

24. Tricks to Catch Buffalo:
The Plains People had many ways to catch buffalo. In the old days, before the horse, they tricked buffalo into running off cliffs. Another way they tricked buffalo was to have some of the men dress up in buffalo skins and make crying sounds, like lost baby buffalo.

25. Tricks to Catch Buffalo:
When a real buffalo left the herd, and hurried to save what she or he thought was a baby buffalo in trouble, the People would kill the animal with spears and arrows. These ideas worked, but they were not nearly as successful as hunting on horseback.

26. Killing a Buffalo:
In the Sioux culture, a boy could hunt his first buffalo at age 10. To a young boy, a buffalo was a giant. A single buffalo stands six feet tall, and weighs about as much as 10 people. Buffalo do not see well, but they run really fast. Can you imagine how a boy might feel, getting ready for his first kill?

27. Killing a Buffalo:
He would be riding a pony. All around him, men would be yelling to get the buffalo to run. Each would have picked out one buffalo to kill. With his bow and arrow, in the midst of all this racket and danger, a ten year old boy was expected to attempt a kill.

28. Killing a Buffalo:
There was no dishonor attached if he was not successful, but he had to try. The buffalo provided nearly everything the Plains people needed.

29. Using All Parts:
When the Plains people killed a buffalo, they used every part of it. Nothing was wasted. They used the hide for tepee coverings, bedding, clothes, moccasins, and robes. The buffalo hair was used for rope and halters.

30. Using All Parts:
The hoofs were used for rattles. The horns were used to make dishes and spoons and ladles. From various parts, they made whips, saddle pads, glues, toys, drums, belts, stirrups, shields, knife cases, boats, thread, and of course - FOOD.

31. The Buffalo was a major resource:
In 1865, Chief Kicking Bear of the Kiowas explained, "The buffalo is our money. It is our only resource with which to buy what we need and do not receive from the government. The robes we can prepare and trade. We love them just as the white man does his money.

32. The Buffalo was a major resource:
Just as it makes a white man's heart feel to have his money carried away, so it makes us feel to see others killing and stealing our cattle given to us by the Great Father above to provide us meat to eat and means to get things to wear.

33. The Buffalo
In the early 1800s there were more bison than people in North America—at least 50 million versus perhaps 2 million humans. By the end of the century, professional hide hunters (not Indians) had almost wiped out the bison, slaughtering whole herds just for their thick woolly skins.

34. The Buffalo
For thousands of years Native Americans hunted bison and valued it above all other animals. Prized for their meat, their hides, and their bones, a bison offered one-stop shopping for most Plains Indians—kind of like when we go to Wal-Mart.

35. The Buffalo
You can imagine how hard it was for the Plains Indians to see their most valuable resource slaughtered by the thousands. Luckily, today bison are no longer endangered thanks to the concerted efforts of ranchers and zoos, but there are far fewer of them than in early historic times.