To many people, the Plains life-style represents the American Indian, the Indian of the eagle-feathered warbonnet, galloping across a movie screen after buffalo or enemies ... The Plains culture was the result of contact with Europeans ... A few times in history, technology changes a whole way of life ... It was the horse that changed Indian life on the Plains ... The Plains were nearly empty before the Indians got horses. Now it quickly became a region of horsemen, fighting over territory, and on the move most of the time.

(Merwyn S. Garbarino, Native American Heritage, 1979)

James Green: Native peoples of the Americas; Oxford University Press, 1993, page 19