Buffalo and horse culture: the Plains Indians

 

Moving westwards from the Woodlands we arrive at the Great Plains. Many of the Plains Indians originally came from the Woodlands. Indian life had been based on simple farming and hunting the buffalo. Most of the plains were unsuitable for farming as the Indians had simple tools that were little use on the tough Plains soils. The Plains were so huge that it was impossible to travel far.

 

The Plains culture (lifestyle) that developed in the eighteenth century was unlike any other of the native peoples of the Americas. As Europeans spread over the Woodlands areas, the Indians were forced westwards on the Plains. Europeans had brought an important animal with them - the horse. As we have already seen, native America had no horses. These animals changed Plains Indian life completely, and between 1800 and 1850 the Plains Indians reached the height of their success helped by the horse.

 

The horse and the buffalo were very important in that success.

 

James Green: Native peoples of the Americas, Oxford University Press, 1993, page 18 f.