The Plains Indian, a Native American group inhabiting the Great Plains between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, is known for their dependence on bison (buffalo), limited use of roots and berries, limited fishing, absence of agriculture, and use of buffalo robes. This primitive culture, which includes the Sioux, Blackfoot, and Comanche tribes, was characterized by their nomadic hunting society, where they hunted large animals such as bison, deer, and elk, as well as gathered wild fruits, vegetables, and grains.
The Plains Indians lived in both sedentary and nomadic communities, farming corn, hunting, and gathering, establishing diverse lifestyles and healthy diets. They also lived in tipis, using horses for hunting, fighting, and carrying goods when moving. Women collected medicinal plants and wild produce, while men grew tobacco and hunted bison, elk, deer, and other game.
The Plains Indian way of life was dictated by the habits of the wild buffalo, who roamed in small groups in winter and spring, and in summer. For thousands of years, tribes of the Great Plains and the Northwest Plateau depended on hunting, fishing, and foraging tribal territories.
In the mid-1700s, Plains tribes started riding horses brought over from Europe, including the Blackfeet, Sioux, and Comanche tribes. The way of life of these tribes included livelihood, family life, foods, clothing, religion, and other aspects of their lives.
📹 The history of the plains Indians | Thomas Sowell
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Which peoples lived on the plains?
The Plains tribes are divided into two groups: one that became a fully nomadic horse culture during the 18th and 19th centuries, following the vast herds of American bison, and the other that were sedentary and semi-sedentary. These tribes included the Arapaho, Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Gros Ventre, Kiowa, Lakota, Lipan, Plains Apache, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwe, Sarsi, Nakoda (Stoney), and Tonkawa. The earliest people of the Great Plains mixed hunting and gathering wild plants, developing horticulture and agriculture as they settled in sedentary villages and towns.
Maize, originally from Mesoamerica, became widespread in the south of the Great Plains around 700 CE. Many Plains people hunted American bison to make everyday items like food, cups, decorations, crafting tools, knives, and clothing. The tribes followed the seasonal grazing and migration of the bison, living in tipis for their nomadic lifestyle.
What is it like in the Great Plains?
The Great Plains have a continental climate with cold winters and warm summers, low precipitation and humidity, much wind, and sudden temperature changes. The Gulf of Mexico is the major source of moisture, with different amounts falling off to the north and west. The southern plains receive 15 to 25 inches of rain annually, while the northern plains receive 12 to 15 inches. The growing season averages 70 to 110 days in the southern parts of the Canadian Great Plains, while the western Great Plains experience the distinctive winter phenomenon of the chinook, a warm, dry wind that can raise temperatures by 30 to 40°F (17 to 22°C) in a short period.
Natural vegetation in the Great Plains is dominated by grasses, including tallgrass and medium grass prairie in the east and shortgrass and bunchgrass steppes in the west. However, much of the natural grass cover has been removed to create agricultural land or is heavily overgrazed, allowing for an increase in less-palatable species. Gallery forests are found along rivers and include hardy xerophytic trees like box elder and cottonwood. Coniferous evergreens dominate mountain islands like the Black Hills.
Before European settlement, the Great Plains were home to immense herds of grazing mammals, including buffalo and pronghorn. Other grassland-adapted animals that thrive alongside agriculture include prairie dogs, coyotes, prairie chickens, rattlesnakes, moose, woodland caribou, Canada lynx, and gray wolves. The region also has insect pests such as the locust and tiny chigger.
What did the men wear in the plains?
The northern Plains people wore traditional clothing, including a shirt, leggings, moccasins, and buffalo robes, with men leaving the upper part of their body bare and tattooing the chest, shoulders, and arms. Women’s clothing consisted of a long dress, leggings to the knee, and moccasins, decorated with porcupine-quill embroidery, fringe, and beadwork. The eyeteeths of elk were often pierced to decorate dresses, showcasing the skill and dedication of hunters in a woman’s family. Billed caps and fur hats were used for protection from the sun and cold, while elaborate headgear was reserved for ceremonial occasions.
Bullboats, round watercrafts, were used to transport large quantities of meat or trade goods downstream. Pipe bowls were usually stone, while pipe stems were usually made of wood. Receptacles were made from rawhide, leather, and fascia. Basketry and pottery were characteristic products of the villagers, with some nomadic tribes making basketry gambling trays. Tools were made from fiber, bone, horn, antler, stone, and metal, with many traditional tools made from metal once it became available through the fur trade.
What is the lifestyle of people living in the plains?
The primary economic activities of those who inhabit the plains are agriculture and ranching. Wheat is a particularly significant crop, while cattle and sheep are raised on extensive ranches.
What did the Native Americans in the Plains wear?
The attire of the Northern men consisted of a shirt, loincloth, hip leggings, moccasins, and bison robes, while the Northern women wore two-piece dresses, leggings, and moccasins. In the southern region, men typically wore loincloths, moccasins, and winter robes, while women wore loose-fitting skirts and blouses. It is possible that feather and quill horse masks originated in Europe.
What was the way of life in a Plains tribe?
The Plains Indian tribes were diverse, with some being mobile, raiders, and others settled agriculturists. The horse, a defining characteristic of the tribes, was introduced by the Spanish in the 1500s to their Southwest settlements. Most tribes incorporated horses into their economy and culture, while some used them to transform their lifestyle. The most significant change horses brought was the ability to abandon permanent villages and travel over the Great Plains to hunt bison. Before the horse, tribes struggled to travel outside major river valleys due to distance and difficulty in hunting bison on foot.
Who settled in the Plains?
The Great Plains were home to various tribes, including the Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Comanche. The eastern portions were inhabited by tribes like the Arikara, Mandan, Pawnee, and Wichita. The Lakota tribe was pushed west onto the Great Plains by wars with the Ojibwe and Cree peoples in the mid- to late-17th century. The Shoshone tribe originated in the western Great Basin and spread north and east into present-day Idaho and Wyoming.
By 1500, some Eastern Shoshone had crossed the Rocky Mountains into the Great Plains. After 1750, warfare and pressure from the Blackfoot, Crow, Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho pushed Eastern Shoshone south and westward. The first known contact between Europeans and Indians in the Great Plains occurred between 1540 and 1542 with the arrival of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado and Hernando de Soto. The Spanish believed the Great Plains were the location of the mythological Quivira and Cíbola, a place rich in gold.
What was life like living on the plains?
The Great Plains faced harsh conditions, including extreme temperatures, lightning flashes, dry land, and unproductive crops. Plains Indians had to adapt their way of life to survive, relying on hunting buffalo for food and materials. They developed a nomadic lifestyle, following buffalo migrations across the Plains. They lived in tipis, which could be transported easily, and had excellent horse-riding and archery skills. They also developed skills to utilize every part of the buffalo, allowing them to effectively hunt and travel across the Plains. Their survival relied heavily on hunting buffalo.
What is the Plains Village tradition?
The Plains Village Tradition is a cultural historical stage in the archaeology of the Great Plains of central North America, spanning from c. ad 800-1400. It is characterized by a diverse range of semi-sedentary village-based groups, mainly based on maize and tropical cultigens, with bison being a significant part of their diet in eastern areas. Many settlements were defended, with enclosed clusters of rectangular or square houses. The Plains Village communities were in regular contact with each other, and in the southwest area, there was widespread contact with Pueblo communities.
Horses were introduced in historic times, allowing greater mobility, but this was short-lived as the village tribes were gradually destroyed by European and American diseases, spirits, trade, war, and treaties.
What tools did the American Indians of the Great Plains use?
Indigenous people of the Americas have used natural resources for tools, food, shelter, and clothing for thousands of years. In the southwest region of the United States, the Utes, who inhabited the Florissant valley, relied heavily on their tools and weapons for daily life. Tools were used for protection and hunting purposes, while weapons were used for daily survival. Both men and women played important roles in using and creating weapons and tools.
Women often made woven baskets for gathering food, nets of fibers for fishing and hunting rabbits, and pottery out of natural materials. Men made grinding stones, bows and arrows, knives, and shields out of natural materials.
Materials used to construct tools and weapons include stone, clay, and plant material. A Ute lithic tool was recently discovered at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, likely used as a scraper. Archaeologists study ancient human artifacts and remains, while paleontologists study fossils. Both studies focus on understanding ancient civilizations and how environments changed over time.
In this lesson, students will learn to recreate tools that Native Americans could have used for their daily life using materials found outside or easily obtained in outdoor areas.
What were 3 groups of people who moved to the plains?
The Plains Indian tribe, a member of Native American peoples inhabiting the Great Plains of the United States and Canada, is a vast grassland region between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. The area is drained primarily by the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, providing reliable sites for fresh water, wood, and plant foods. The climate is continental, with annual temperatures ranging from 0°F to as high as 110°F.
The tribes of the Great Plains are often regarded as the archetypical American Indians due to their resistance to colonial demands. This view is promoted by traveling exhibits, Wild West shows, and various products. Six distinct American Indian language families or stocks were represented in the Plains, with those speaking the same language often referred to as a tribe or nation. However, this naming convention often masks the existence of autonomous political divisions within a given tribe. For example, the Blackfoot tribe included three independent bands, the Piegan, Blood, and Blackfoot proper.
📹 GCSE History Rapid Revision: Destruction of the Plains Indian Lifestyle
This Rapid Revision session looks at the destruction of the Plains Indians’ lifestyle, including the extermination of the buffalo, …
I am a Dine(Navajo) my great great grandfathers are Chief Barboncito and Delgadito the first blacksmith. I was born in Fort Defiance and my home is in Crystal, NM. Apparently Chief Narbona was related through marriage also. When I was younger my father showed me the old battle field in Copper Pass and there are still bone fragments up there including partial skulls but we are forbidden from handling them. I am also a US Army Veteran, so is my sister, my father was a Vietnam Marine Veteran, uncles and two grandfathers who were Code Talkers in WW2, Leslie Hemstreet and John Brown Jr. I am very proud to be an American, I will do as my forefathers and protect it will my life against all enemies foreign and domestic.
I don’t think it is at all accurate to say that the Indians hunted the deer, beaver, and buffalo to near extinction. With regard to the buffalo, the United States government had a deliberate policy of encouraging large scale hunting for the specific purpose of depriving the tribes of their primary food source.
Before the horse, the cheyenne were in central minnesota harvesting wild rice and partaking of deer, ducks, and their gardens. With the horse came vicious war upon them from other tribes and the cheyenne gave up that lifestyle to move out onto the high plains where distance was a large asset in making defensive war plans. More than half stayed well north and made friends with the lakota and sioux by helping them attack their enemies.
Im a direct descendant of people from the Texas Indian wars, specifically a wagon driver, who would tie bundles of straw to the wheels of his wagon to keep noise to a minimum and make it harder to track, due to Indian raids. Apparently a young boy from the family, about eight, was taken from a settlement, and they gathered a posse to track the boy down… They caught up with them but he was killed by a spear and left in the brush. Frontiersmen from around Waco.
Mr. Sowell, please take extraordinary care of yourself to the best of your ability. You are a living legend in terms of knowledge and intellect. At least once a month I think about your inevitable demise and am saddened by the thought at our collective loss your death represents. If nothing else, thank you, for being you. Sorry to come off morbid, but it is a concern of mine that keeping to myself does no one any good. I cannot express fully what your tireless and thankless work means to me. I am not religious myself, but may your God bless you! Jason
It’s stated that the natives with modern weapons where responsible for the depletion of the bison. However, I have read that it was white bison hunters due to the want of the hides, meat & the government’s desire to deprive the food source of the native population that caused the decimation of the bison herds. Which is it?
The only thing I disagree with on this article is, when he said that the Indians killed off the Buffalo, I don’t agree with that. I have read 2 books on Indian wars, and they both say that the US Army killed off the Buffalo to handicap the Indians to force them on reservations. Bc they were so used to hunting them, the white man knew to do this
Overall message, stop Deifying Native Americans like they were some flawless and enlightened group of people. They were human just like the rest of us, thus were capable of the same flaws and shortcomings, thus were also violent, narrow minded, aggressive, and hostile. Yes some of them were peaceful but people really need to stop acting like all Native Americans were the same.
This is a generalized commentary based on studies done by others Sowell does not credit. He mentions Sitting Bull and Geronimo as though they were neighbors. Mexico had a nation with Ports on the Gulf Of Mexico and the Pacific Oceans. California did not develop a Native American horse mounted culture analogous to the Plains. Could geography be a factor? Numbers would have helped. How many whites lived in Minnesota Territory by decade from 1700 to 1900? How many whites lived in Arizona Territory? How did Mexico and the United States treat Apaches who did not recognize their borders? No numbers were offered. No recognition of Native Oral Histories. Despite these shortcomings commenters write that Mr. Sowell is the historian they wish they had and that he is showing a history without liberal bias. That is not my issue. My issue is a historical commentary without referring to context, data, other points of view is not a good history. Read about anthropologists who studied Native American cultures and considered their historical interactions with European cultures.
There are several great reads written by Native Americans and mountain men: Thocmentony, Sarah Winnemucca a Paiute born 1844, Ohíye S’a Charles Eastman a Santee Dakota born 1858, a physician, and help found the Boy Scouts and YMAC, James Beckwourth, a Negro mountain man who lived with the Crow, and has an immigrant trail and a town in California named after him, and Beckwourth Days in Marysville CA.
It wasn’t the plains Indians who hunted the buffalo to near extinction. It was whites, probably hired by the powers that be (were), to starve the native tribes off the land. The Indians thought the whites were insane (and they were) slaughtering millions of buffalo, taking their hides and leaving the meat to rot. After the Indians were disposed of, the land could be developed as range and farms. After the land had been domesticated, the farmers were encouraged to run up debt, then they were foreclosed on during the depression and the central powers gained control over large tracts of land that were converted into agribusiness. Now the Chinese and Bill Gates (similar totalitarian mind set) are buying up huge amounts of farm land.
Sowell fails to mention the hundreds of treaties made with the Indians giving them land and then breaking those same treaties to get gold or silver or other minerals the whites deemed valuable. He also needs to read Mari Sandoz’ book The Buffalo Hunter. In this work she details with devastating accuracy the role white hunters played in the virtual extension of the Buffalo. This is a good example of Sowell breaking his own rule. He remarks in his other books that an expert in one field thinks he is also an expert in other fields when in reality he is not.
5:05 – This doesn’t look like a western supply train so much as Knox’s cannon run. … Yup, it’s the illustration on the wikipedia page for that event. You’ve got a much better scan/print. Anyway, that was New York and Massachusetts and oddly a supply from out of the wilderness into Boston, rather than out into the wilderness. 1775-6.
Typically Thomas Sowell speaks boat load’s of truth, but the plains Indians didn’t hunt the buffalo to virtual extinction, white hunters providing leather to the east for belting to power the new industrial revolution, hauled hauled hides by the wagon load to rail centers for shipment. The killing of the buffalo accomplished two things, it provided a tough durable leather and starved the indian’s into submission.
“Comanches put the prisoner to work digging a hole, telling him they needed it for a religious ceremony. When the captive, using a knife and his hands, had completed digging a pit about five feet deep, they bound him with rope, placed him in it, filled the hole with dirt, packing it around his body and exposed head. They then scalped him and cut off his ears, nose, lips, and eyelids. Leaving him bleeding, they rode away, counting on the sun and insects to finish their work for them. Later, back at their encampment, they told the story as an excellent joke, one which gained them a certain celebrity throughout the tribe.” — Stanley Noyes, Los Comanches, The Horse People 1751-1845
I as a troublemaker was taken in by an amazing family at the age age of 16 by mere kindness. The wife a dear Ojibway woman and the father a Finlander. I’ve learned much from them. I was blessed by God to be there with them. They were hard working folk. I was lazy. I didn’t deserve they’re kind treatment. Im indebted to they’re kindness and generosity.
A point missing from this article is that to understand life on the frontier, you have to understand something about the life of the tribes prior to about 1840. It wasn’t peace, love, and harmony as many would have you believe. No, the tribes were quite proficient at slaughtering one another and brutalizing captives long before the Europeans got here. The law on the frontier was effectively one of vengeance. Eye for an eye sort of stuff. The tribes were not living peacefully. There was always one neighboring tribe or another with whom they were engaged in open hostilities. The records of many of the various “mountain men” attest to this. It was only in about 1870-1880 that the law as we know it, of courts and judges, finally took over in the West. Notice that since that time, no tribe has been at war with any other tribe. I’m not suggesting that the path leading to that point wasn’t riddled with offense and betrayals from both sides, but just noting that the conditions that came out of that ended up creating a new way of life that didn’t have tribal members constantly on watch for raiding parties from other tribes. The merits (good or bad) of life for the tribes post-1880 is, of course, a discussion in and of itself.
Near the end it is meantioned that the plains indians hunted the buffalo to virtual extinction? How does that figure, given the historic accounts of white hunters harvesting buffalo for hides and killing them in the 10s or perhaps 100s of thousands once the railroad arrived? This causal comment implies the plains Indians caused the near extinction. I’ve not read anything that would back this up.
It’s not the Sioux, it’s the Santee. Their reservation is less than 50 miles from here. They had a lawsuit against the state of Minnesota recently that resulted in certain people not being able to use their name on a casino that made them rich. Sioux is a name that the French gave a certain groups of people that they traded with, and the name stuck. If you understand anything about the French language, you would understand that that is a French word.
Thomas, a wonderful summary of the West’s history. I have only one bone to pick: the Plains Indians did not “hunt the buffalo to extinction”–there were not enough Indians to do so. The Sharps rifle allowed white shooters to harvest hundreds of animals per day for their skins alone, and railroad passengers shot buffalo by the thosand for the mere fun of it (?!). Please do look into this and you will find it true. Thank you for your scholarly presentations, and this modest point is only for your further education in a very tiny way.
That was a good general overview; however, there were several glaring omissions. In the Colorado massacre it was only mentioned that there were indigenous women and children killed. The fact that Black Kettle in 1964 was a chief looking for a peaceful solution and had negotiated a surrender complete with a white flag over the village makes the massacre totally unjustified and sent the flames of war into an inferno. Sand Creek was a Sioux and Cheyenne rallying cry for decades. The second fact is that the peaceful Black Kettle band was attacked again. This time by Custer in1868 using women and children as hostage screens. This ‘battle’ occurred following a previously negotiated treaty (and another white flag). That the chief and his wife were killed at the Washita only added to the resentment. The second slanted view presented was that of the demise of the buffalo. It is absurd to assert that it was the Native Americans who wiped out the herds after living in stable harmony with this primary source of food and shelter for centuries. It was the white hunters shooting from trains that slaughtered literally millions of animals, leaving them to rot in the field for sport, that decimated the once gigantic herds. It was part of a concerted effort to starve than plains Indians and force them onto reservations. This genocide was real. That the facts make many uncomfortable only means it is more important to view them as part of the true history of our country. Perspective and proportion are necessary, but ignorance is not.
11:09 so the story that there were 60 million bison that were wiped out in 5 years by the railroad hiring sharpshooters to get rid of the bison that blocks the railroad for days on end is a lie? I don’t believe the planes Indians wiped out the bison. I agree with everything else in this article except that.
One thing I would disagree with you about is it was not the Indians who hunted the Buffalo to virtual extinction. It was the US Government They created a program to specifically target them because they knew it would be the thing to ultimately bring down the Mystic Warrior of the Plains as the Buffalo was their primary food source.. It is estimated that 3000-5000 were killed every day between the years of 1872-1874
Thank you for your works!!!! Truly appreciate you. I am working on my fifth book, covering the inaccuracies of how history is taught. It’s refreshing seeing a YouTube website (yours) sticking to history and not Hollywood. There are things people should know. But then, there’s so many YouTube websites of people “teaching” history that are absolutely not correct. Examples below:
Not very good work. The buffalo were hunted to near extinction by Americans in the 1870s. Many of the removals and reservations/allotments for Plains people had already taken place by then. No mention of the Indian Wars, language families, political marriages between traders and natives, or anything of substance. I would recommend Ancient Archaeology’s article on the Great Plains for some better anthropological background on plains people, and the PBS Origins article about reservations for some better history. Very slim pickings on YouTube for Great Plains indigenous history.
“Will the Jewish people love a 45 year old, catholic, polish women as their Jewish Messiah “That’s how I already revealed myself back in October. My name is MAGDALENA this time. If that’s not enough proof that JESUS was a Messiah then there is another one. Everything God showed me and told me happened outside… GOD IS NOT INSIDE THE CHURCHES…🕊️🕊️🕊️
Drifting goose ( magabobdu) was the last free hunkpati Dakota sioux indian to lead his people. He tried stop the white settlers from coming on to his own land. Along the James River valley north of Redfield County SD untouched land. Also surrounding lands to the big sioux falls near present day sioux falls SD during the 1870’s. Drifting goose’s led non violence raiding parties against the settlers to the rail road survivors. Drifting goose was stealing cattle, destroy properties, chasing the intruders away from his land and break rail road spikes. Finally by the spring of 1880 after a crop failure and constant harassment by the us government. Drifting goose led his last free proud hunkpati Dakota sioux people to the crow creek sioux Indian reservation at old Fort Thompson SD were his descents live today. Drifting goose never signed a treaty with the us government. He never allowed settlers and rail road survivors on his own land since 1840 to 1880 Drifting goose was known as the peaceful Dakota sioux chief. He still owns land in armidil Island near the ancient Mandan mound village on the James River of South Dakota. Drifting goose is remembered there by the white local population was a friendly Dakota sioux leader.
Right of Conquest has always be the standard, the people of the Steppe (Scythians) were the first horse warriors, nomadic, tribal yet affiliated, ranging a huge territory of the plains for centuries, Mongolian to Semigallian in a vast swath north to south, the point is, history is peopled, in Idaho we have Chief Joseph, he was brilliant and wise yet the dead on all sides lie in the wake, this is America, a good land with a good Constitution plagued by people (just like all history) who are not interested in LAW.
my father and i have been digging into his side of the family my grandfather’s sister told my grandmother that i am from the navajo people BUT it turns out my family have no connection with the tribes of north america my is of Aztec (Nahua) Mayan and Otomi Descent and and their faith is my birth right …..and i know what faith im going with too.
I have a relative who is a professor of cultural anthropology, and his favorite thing to do is take the young skulls full of mush on an actual archaeological dig where the place has been completely destroyed environmentally centuries ago, and still has not recovered and the poor little snowflakes always complain about what the white man did to the environment, and he lets them complain And after a while, he points out that there are no items proving the white men were there Daddy‘s little cupcakes are all completely shocked and only then are the brains starting to function and realize that the tribes were basically a horrifying nightmare environmentally they would set fire to thousands of acres of trees and brushland to drive thousands of bison off a cliff where they could only process dozens of bison for meat and the rest rotted in the midday sun
1:13 Please help me here regarding the” race” of the economy.. Once the horse was introduced from Mexico the Indians shifted from nomadic people to hunting people. The Indians used the horse to chase the “buffalo who’s hides where sold in the white economy, except for the ones that where not sold and kept and the meat was eaten by the Indians. If the Indians traded the hides that they hunted did they not participate in the economy as well? Does the economy have a race? It is referred to as the “white economy”. ay I suggest and edit to be true not only here but across other philosophical discussions regarding economies, as they are borne of economic resources constrained by geographic expedience of the systems of different eras. The economies as constrained by the economic geographic technological environment of the time. So use as you will. I love Thomas So wells work towards intellectuals and race but i need to understand economies that have a race. Pease enlighten..
Love Thomas Sowell, but I think the near extinction of the buffalo can be attributed to the rapid expansion of ranching, and the intentional attempt to destroy the Plains Indian’s food supply. Having rifles certainly made it easier for tribes like the Comanche to kill Buffalo, but considering their population was pretty small, especially when compared to the white and Mexican population, the disappearing of the Buffalo seems logically to be something other than the hunting habits of the Plains Indians.
None of us were ever in this environment we can only be or know what we live in right now, the past does not exist we try to understand it the best we can to make today better. It does no good to extrapolate hatred from these events to insert them into today’s living which is better than anyone in history ever had.
As a First Nations person, I take exception to your statement that it was the plains Indians that hunted to buffalos to extinction. The buffalos were hunted extinction by commercial hunters anxious to profit from the expanded requirements for leather to be used as flat belts to drive industrial machines. Next, came the military,who wantonly killed these animals to deprive the indigenous people of their food source. My wife is a Lakota Sioux, and I have learned much of her ancestry from the elders of her Nation. My Fathers people, the Cherokee, had been defeated, and removed from their land many decades before the final Westward movement. The people of the plains were the last of the conquered Nations, save for the Yaqui, of Northern Mexico, who the last I heard, were still at war both with the US, and Mexico, having never surrendered, or held treaty with either. Your recounting, is however the most accurate to date I have ever heard from any non Indian person. As Savages we are just so difficult to deal with in a civilized manner. LOL !!! Well done !!! Tim
Love Thomas Sowell’s narrative, except about the Indians being the driving force killing off the buffalo. White hunters killed them for their pelts, even hunting them from trains. There was an effort to deprive the Indians of their main source of needed food and materials, just like the destroying of crops of the Navajo to drive them to reservations. Army commanders encouraged the killing of the buffalo in the 1870s, killing over 9 million buffalo in just a few years. I would add that western expansion by whites were probably a larger factor in the decimation of the deer and beaver populations than Indians who had hunted them for years, without much problem.
This is only a very brief history of Plains Indian tribes based on the interaction after colonization. The actual history is much more complicated and stretches back 15,000 years. I’m Lakota. The history and context of the tribes is complicated and included many more tribes than mentioned in this article. A lot of facts are left out in this article but overall it’s not bad.
There might be another version, but Thomas Sowell sounds so sure and convincing that you hardly want to investigate further… There is nobody to blame for History; it was just people trying to survive; some will come out on top, others will be remembered and honest and brave. So has been the world since times imemorial…
03:06 – 03:36 What a SHARP presentation of an oft-reproduced, vintage image of Geronimo (far r.) and fellow Apaches. Rather ironic that he, the famous leader of his people, sports a rather old single shot rifle and the two younger Apaches on the left brandish better defensive and offensive weaponry, fast-shooting, Winchester REPEATING carbines.
Where does this idea of the horse being introduced to them come from? People keep saying it but never why or where the idea comes from. The Indeans have their traditions and it doesn’t make sense to suppose they made that up and came to actually believe it. It doesn’t make sense so where does it come from?
I think Sowell’s approach to history is that you have to make an effort to understand the facts and details of what happened before you can understand anything, which is the opposite of most high school teachers who seem to be saying: Look kids, I know you’re not going to read anything but that’s okay, just learn my ideology and everything will become perfectly clear. People who can watch this and claim that its message is that all Europeans or all Native Americans are to blame for everything just weren’t paying attention.
Interesting. Art the End Sowell mentions the Eastern Indians hunted the Beaver and deer to almost extinction in the East and in the West the Indians hunted Buffalo to almost Extinction. These same people using horses had in millennia past hunted the mammoths to extinction and ironically horses to extinction. Never able to grasp the use of the horse until Whites brought them back to the continent millennia later and demonstrating their usefulness. Indians were not “environmentalists, and were not on the same level of intellect as Europeans.
When nations are at war for their survival from covetous, violent, invaders they tend to respond to violence with violence. If you disagree then wait til your home is invaded, your children and women stolen and sold into slavery, your food and water supply attacked to hinder your survival and your ability to resist. The invaders can’t be the hero and the indigenous populace fighting for their freedom can’t be the villian. . . no matter one spins the story or highlights the violence conducted by the defender in times of war while white washing the provocative violence conducted by the invading opposition force. Also, this article ignores the fact that because U.S. military forces could not “conquer” indigenous people they resorted to asking for peace, signing legally binding peace treaties that are international laws then as soon as the Unconquered Indigenous communities disarmed, went back to peaceful life, trying to recover from war and rebuild a new life under the terms of the international peace treaties made with the invading enemies, the U.S. Calvary attacks (both white & black calvary troops) murdering and betraying the legally binding peace treaties. In other cases the government violated term of the peace treaties making it impossible to feed their communities without leaving the reserves. As soon as some men leave the reserve to find food they’re demonized by gov fake news, a u.s. tradition it seems, and unarmed, peaceful, Indigenous communities were attacked by U.S. troops waiting for a pretext which uncle sam created.
11:05 — 11:13 This was going so well — until the end where our authority BLOWS IT big time. “Just as the Eastern Indians had hunted beaver and deer to virtual extinction so the Plains Indians hunted the buffalo to virtual extinction.” While William F. Cody (popularly known as Buffalo Bill) and other buffalo hunters hired by the expanding railroads (Union Pacific, Central Pacific) building from east and west across the Great Plains killed thousands of bison daily to feed the the enormous leagues of laborers developing rights of way and laying track, two other developments — one militarily and one civilian — took part to annihilate the millions of hoofed beasts. Unable to kill them in battle or remove them to distant reservations, he U.S. Army began its concerted effort to starve the Indians to death and into submission by depriving them of their vital source for food, clothing and shelter — the buffalo. It initiated and advanced this policy by hiring hunters to exterminate the herds. Meanwhile, corporations from the east enticed hunters to kill as much as they could so as to supply restaurants with buffalo tongue, a new delicacy, and manufacturers and merchants with buffalo hides. The latter were made into winter clothing, rugs, comforters and fully skinned hides into leather, transformed for a variety of uses. It is INCORRECT and PREPOSTEROUS to state, or even imply, the Native Americans would slowly commit suicide by needlessly wiping out millions and millions of buffalo.
If we spent more time on teaching young adults and children to never resists police we would overwhelmingly help and even save more lives than CRT and transgender awareness would do good in a million years. And rather cancelling history that is not PC, teach more of it because someone once said history is not repeated…just forgotten.
Obviously there where wrongs and atrocities committed by both sides.However it is repugnant to me when we sit surrounded by our 21st century luxuries and judge those who lived in far harsher conditions.Thomas Sowell,Walter Williams, Clarence Thomas,Martin Luther King are National treasures who somehow can see through the hatred and bias and, present history and current conditions as they were and are and not how they think they should be.