Tools/Weapons

/ Bullboat

Teepee

The buffalo was very valuable to the Plains Indians. The buffalo meat was dried and mixed with marrow and fruit to become a food that would keep for long periods of time. The Indians used hides to make ropes, shields, and clothing. The teepee was also made from the buffalo hide. Sinew or buffalo muscle was used to make bowstrings, moccasins, and bags. The bones were used to make tools and runners for dog sleds. The horns were made into utensils such as a spoon, cup, or bowl. Even the hair could be made into rope.

A parfleche was used by the Plains Indians to carry their possessions. It was made from a buffalo hide. The hide was cut into a large rectangular shape. Belongings were placed on the center of the hide. Next the hide was folded like and envelope and tied with rawhide straps. The parfleche was made water proof by covering it with a glue made by boiling the tails of beavers.

Ceremonies

The Buffalo Dance

The most exciting event of the year's festival was the Buffalo Dance. Eight men participated, wearing buffalo skins on their backs and painting themselves black, red, and white. Dancers endeavoured to imitate the buffalo on the prairie.

Each dancer held a rattle in his right hand, and in his left a six-foot rod. On his head, he wore a bunch of green willow boughs. The season for the return of the buffalo coincided with the willow trees in full leaf. Another dance required only four tribesmen, representing the four main directions of the compass from which the buffalo might come. With a canoe in the centre, two dancers, dressed as grizzly bears who might attack the hunters, took their places on each side. They growled and threatened to spring upon anyone who might interfere with the ceremony.

Onlookers tried to appease the grizzlies by tossing food to them. The two dancers would pounce upon the food, carrying it away to the prairie as possible lures for the coming of the buffaloes.

During the ceremony, the old men of the tribe beat upon drums and chanted prayers for successful buffalo hunting.

By the end of the fourth day of the Buffalo Dance, a man entered the camp disguised as the evil spirit of hunger. Immediately he was driven away by shouts and stone-throwing from the younger Mandans, who waited excitedly to participate in the ceremony.

When the demon of famine was successfully driven away, the entire tribe joined in the bountiful thanksgiving feast, symbolic of the early return of buffalo to the Mandan hunting-grounds.

Spirit or Wakan Tanka
The Plains Indians believed in the Great Spirit. The Indians believed the Great Spirit had power over all things including animals, trees, stones, and clouds. The earth was believed to be the mother of all spirits. The sun had great power also because it gave the earth light and warmth. The Plains Indians prayed individually and in groups. They believed visions in dreams came from the spirits. The medicine man or shaman was trained in healing the sick and interpreting signs and dreams.

Vision Quests
When a boy became a man he would seek a spirit that would protect him for the rest of his life. First the boy went into the sweat lodge. Inside the lodge stones were heated and then water was poured over the stones to produce steam. The boy prayed as the hot steam purified his body. After the sweat lodge the boy jumped into cold water. Next he was taken to a remote place and left without food and water. The boy wore only his breech clout and moccasins. For the next three or four days the boy prayed for a special vision. The men of the tribe came to help the boy back to the camp. After cleaning up and eating, the boy was taken to the shaman (person who was believed to see spirits) who interpreted his vision. Sometimes the boy was given an adult name taken from the vision. After the shaman interpreted the dream the village had a feast to celebrate the boy becoming a man.

The Sun Dance
The Sun Dance was a very important ceremony among the Plains Indians. It lasted for several days. Before the ceremony the Indians would fast. The camp was set up in a circle of teepees. A tree was cut and set up in the center of the space to be used for the dance. Ropes made of hair or leather thongs were fastened to the top of the pole. Men tied these ropes to sticks which were stuck through the flesh of their chests or backs. The men danced, gazing at the sun, whistling through pipes, and pulling back on the ropes until the sticks torn through the flesh.

THE BISON HUNT

Thousands of years before the guns and horses arrived in North America the Plains Indians hunted the bison on foot. They used spears and later bows and arrows for the hunt. They had several ways to capture the bison. The "Buffalo Pound" and "Buffalo Jump" methods were used to kill large numbers of animals.

  • The BUFFALO POUND method
    The bison were lured into a coulee (ravine) by a hunter who dressed in buffalo robes. Then the other hunters, who were lined along the coulee, stampeded the animals into a log corral (closed-in place). They killed the bison with spears.
  • The BUFFALO JUMP method
    "Chasers" or "runners" would lead the animals towards a cliff where others waited behind rocks and trees. People waved blankets and shouted forcing the animals over the edge of the cliff. Others waited at the bottom of the cliff to kill the crippled animals.
  • Sometimes men covered in buffalo robes or wolf skins followed the animals waiting for the best time to kill them.
  • Hunting parties would surround a herd and creep up as close as possible. When given a signal each hunter would aim at a target animal. They had to be quick and accurate before the buffalo stampeded.
  • Hunters drove the bison into deep snow and then killed them.
  • The animals were attacked at water holes where they were unable to get away. Another method of driving herds of deer, pronghorn and bison into streams was by burning grass and forcing the animals to a river.
  • The CHASE method
    This method was sometimes used if the hunters had horses (which didn’t come to North America until Christopher Columbus and other European brought them after 1492). A hunting party would charge the herd and get as close as they could to a bison, then shoot it with a bow and arrow or gun.
  • In the summer several bands would get together to hunt the bison. More bison were killed this way. The meat was divided according to the needs of each family.

Uses of Buffalo/ Bison

The bison was very important to the Plains Indians. They used every part of the animal. (diagram-using the bison)

  • meat - roasted on the campfire, boiled, for pemmican and jerky, sausages
  • hides with the hair left on - winter clothing, gloves, blankets, robes, costumes for ceremonies or for hunting.
  • hides - ropes, blankets, shields, clothing, bags, tipi covers, bull boats, sweat lodge covers, containers, drums
  • sinew (muscles) - bowstrings, thread for sewing, webbing for snowshoes
  • bones - for making hoes, shovels, runners for sleds, pointy tools, knives, pipes, scrapers, arrowheads
  • horns - spoons, cups, bowls, containers to carry tobacco, medicine or gunpowder, headdresses, arrow points, toys
  • hair - rope, pillow stuffing, yarn, shields, medicine balls
  • beard - decoration on clothes and weapons
  • tail - fly swatter, whip, tipi decoration
  • brain - used for tanning the hides (to soften the skin)
  • hoofs - rattles, boiled to make glue
  • fat - paint base, hair grease, for making candles and soap
  • dung (manure chips) - fuel for campfires and smoke signals
  • teeth - for decorating, necklaces
  • stomach - containers for water and for cooking
  • bladder - medicine bag, water container, pouches
  • skull - ceremonies and prayer