Table Of Content(cid:1)(cid:2)(cid:3)(cid:4)(cid:5)(cid:6)(cid:7)(cid:8)(cid:9)(cid:10)(cid:4)(cid:8)(cid:9)(cid:11)(cid:8)(cid:7)(cid:9)(cid:10)
NUMBER 19
Elma Dill Russell Spencer Series
in the West and Southwest
TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY PRESS College Station
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Copyright © 1998
by Paul H.Carlson
Manufactured in
the United States ofAmerica
All rights reserved
First edition
The paper used in this book
meets the minimum requirements
ofthe American National Standard
for Permanence ofPaper for Printed
Library Materials,z39.48-1984.
Binding materials have been
chosen for durability.
∞
Library ofCongress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Carlson,Paul H.,1940–
The Plains Indians / Paul H.
Carlson.— 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical
references and index.
ISBN 0–89096–828–4 (cloth).—
ISBN 0–89096–817–9 (pbk.)
1.Indians ofNorth America—
Great Plains—History. 2.Indians
ofNorth America—Great Plains—
Social life and customs. I.Title.
E78.G73C38 1998 98–13697
978'.00497—dc21 CIP
For
Karen M. Bouley
David R. Carlson
Jean M. Forrest
JoAnn E. Krejca
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List ofIllustrations,viii
Preface,ix
Acknowledgments,xi
Chapter 1.The People and the Plains,1
Chapter 2.First Arrivals,20
Chapter 3.Horse and Bison Culture,36
Chapter 4.Economy and Material Culture,51
Chapter 5.Social Organization,67
Chapter 6.Society and Social Conventions,81
Chapter 7.Ceremony and BeliefSystems,110
Chapter 8.Trade and Diplomacy,124
Chapter 9.War and Peace,142
Chapter 10.Reservation Life,163
Epilogue:The Twentieth Century,183
Notes,195
Bibliography,217
Index,237
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beginning page91
Bu¥alo hunting
Mandan earth lodge
Grass lodge
Shoshoni camp
Kicking Bear,Standing Bear,and Young Man Afraid ofHis Horse
“INDIAN WEAPONS AND GARMENTS”
“INDIAN WEAPONS”
Burial ofdead
Indian ¤ght outside Ft.McKenzie
Red Cloud
Sitting Bull
Ten Bears
Little Wolf
Standing Bear
Quanah Parker
Reservation towns
Ration day
Wounded Knee monument
MAPS
The Plains and some Western Indians,3
Migration Routes and “Golden Age”Peoples,25
Selected Western Posts,Reservations,and Towns,138
War and Peace,153
Plains and Related Reservations,167
TABLES
1.Populations ofSelected Nomadic Peoples,10–11
2.Populations ofSelected Semisedentary Hunting
and Farming Peoples,11–12
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American Indians of the plains are members of dynamic soci-
eties,capable of change and full of growth.As a result their societies have
evolved. The social organizations, political structures, economic patterns,
ethnic compositions,and to a lesser extent worldviews oftwo hundred years
ago have changed. Perceptions, attitudes, and judgments have changed.
Much,however,does indeed remain the same.The Plains Indians retain sev-
eral older customs,myths,ritual procedures,folkways,and traditions as well
as much oftheir early art,cultural identity,music,and life patterns.None-
theless,their societies today re‰ect contemporary concerns and ideals that
are quite different from earlier ones. In short, modern-day Plains Indian
people are unlike their early-day counterparts in enough ways to suggest that
there is a fundamental di¥erence between Plains Indian societies ofpast and
present eras.
This book seeks to examine Plains Indian societies ofan earlier era—the
traditional period.The traditional era is de¤ned as the period from the time
when horses and material goods, di¥used from an alien Western culture,
radically enhanced the complexity of Plains Indian life and society to the
time when intensive contact with that same Western culture destroyed that
complexity.Ironically,many of the same in‰uences that created the com-
plexity were those that ultimately led to its decline.
Following Raymond J. DeMallie,Alice B. Kehoe,Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.,
Eldon Johnson,and others,this book de¤nes Plains Indians in a broad sense.
Thus,it looks at both the horticultural communities ofthe western prairies
and the hunting groups of the high plains from the Saskatchewan River
Basin in western Canada to the Rio Grande Valley in northern Mexico.
Although it lasted only a few generations, the traditional era claims a
vivid place in the collective memory ofpeople over much ofthe world.The
Plains Indians of the period (roughly speaking, 1750–1890) enjoyed com-
pelling lifestyles,highly attractive to most who came in contact with them.
Both whites and contemporary non-Plains Indian peoples admired and
copied them.The Plains Indians ofthe period were not all alike,ofcourse,
and the di¥erences were considerable, but in terms of equestrian, bison-
hunting economies,cultural traits o¥er a pattern for both plains and prairie
societies ofthe late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
This book argues that the plains and prairie societies of the period came
into being after extensive contact with Europeans.Horses and ¤rearms,West-
ern trade goods,shifting migration patterns,disease pandemics,and events
associated with white contact created channels through which those societies
evolved to a peak of in‰uence in the early nineteenth century.Shortly after
mid-century most Indian people ofthe plains were living on reservations.
Thus,an important theme of the book stresses the essentially ephemeral
nature ofthe period.Many ofthe Plains Indians came to the region late.Their
societies developed in the second halfofthe eighteenth century,reached as-
cendancy in the early nineteenth century,and changed rather quickly after-
ward.In 1850 the Plains Indians could ride over much of the western high
plains. Twenty years later they were living on reservations, where without
abandoning their cultural base they adopted sedentary lifeways and shifted to-
ward new life patterns,new sodalities,and di¥erent characteristics of com-
munity;new social events and contexts shaped their cultures.
A related theme in this study is the idea ofchange and cultural adaptation.
Plains Indian societies were in a constant state of‰ux.While granting a basic
timelessness to their societies,the peoples ofthe plains and prairies adapted
in constructive and positive ways to changing circumstances.They were nei-
ther passive recipients nor helpless victims ofnew cultural and social forms,
and while core elements oftheir cultures endured,the deep edges evolved to
keep pace with an ever-changing present.
The book is not environmental history, but another theme stresses the
role ofthe environment.On one level the e¥ective ecological exploitation of
bison helped to create the distinct societies that characterized the Plains In-
dians ofthe period. Dependence on bison provided unity to the region.On
another level complex interactions with the environment occurred. Al-
though environmental adaptation was diƒcult at best,people of the plains
and prairies to some extent adjusted their hunting practices,their religious
ceremonies,and their social organizations to the seasons,to the migrating
patterns ofbison,and to other environmental factors,such as the grazing re-
quirements oftheir horses.The Plains Indians,however,did not live in per-
fect harmony with the environment,which,never static,changed over time.
Moreover,such historical factors as migration,di¥usion,disease,and contact
with whites were important in‰uences shaping the societies.
Finally,the study is designed for a wide audience.In a focused narrative it
seeks to examine Plains Indian history and culture and to provide under-
standing for a key segment ofthe Plains Indian experience.
x
