Plains Indians

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tonkawa Lipan-Apachen Comanche Kichai Kiowa-Apachen Wichita Kiowa Osage Quapaw Kansa Missouri Pawnee Oto Iowa Yankton Omaha Ponca Arapaho Lakota Dakota Yanktonai Cheyenne Arikaree Mandan Hidatsa Absarokee Assiniboine Saulteaux Gros Ventre Blackfoot Plains-Cree Sarcee
The spread of the horse in the bison habitat as a prerequisite for the development of the prairie and plains cultures (move the mouse over the red bordered tribal territories to see the - linked - names of the peoples)
The horse and bison formed the livelihoods of the Plains Indians for little more than 100 years

The term Prairie Indians (also Plains Indians ) is mainly used for the equestrian cultures of nomadic bison hunters who lived in teepees on the western (short grass) prairies of North America ( Great Plains ). They included the Lakota , Cheyenne , Absarokee , Kiowa , Comanche , Blackfoot and parts of the Apaches .

On the large prairie rivers and on the eastern long-grass prairie, however, there were also some semi-sedentary ethnic groups who cultivated agriculture , such as the Mandan , Hidatsa , Pawnee or Arikaree .

Equestrian cultures

The equestrian cultures owe their origin to the introduction of the house horse . In the middle of the 16th century, the Spanish conquistadors and a few settlers and missionaries brought the horse with them to southern North America. In the first half of the 17th century, mainly ridden animals from the Spaniards were captured by the Indians. In the southwest , horse theft remained the main source of supply for the southern Plains Indians until the 19th century. Above all, however, escaped animals - the Berber horses , used to heat and drought , which had spread since the revolt of the Pueblo tribes in 1680 - found ideal living conditions in the steppes and established the wild mustang breed . From the beginning, the Indians of the plains recognized the usefulness of the horse as a riding and transport animal.

From around 1720, with the spread of the Mustangs - beginning with the Komantschen - a significant cultural change began among the prairie inhabitants and the settlement of the dry short-grass steppes made possible by the horse. This process reached the upper Missouri as early as 1730 and the Canadian steppes before 1750. By 1800 there were approximately two million wild horses on the prairies of North America. In every possible way these Indians tried to get themselves into possession of horses, which gave them a considerably increased mobility (with advantages in the procurement of food, transport and on military campaigns). The decisive factor was the adaptation to the seasonal migrations of the bison: unlike the dog, which was previously used as the only pack animal, the horse allowed the rapid relocation of settlements and also the settlement of areas away from the large rivers that lead to the Allow crops to be grown. Many Indian nations left their earth houses and from then on lived in tents made of buffalo skin on the open prairie. This resulted in a nomadic way of life, which is sometimes attributed to the natural pasture industry due to the keeping of horse herds . However, controlled horse breeding has only rudimentarily developed; as a rule, the horses on the northern and central prairies were mainly caught in the wild. Over time, the horse - often referred to as the "holy dog" or "big dog" - played an increasingly important role in the culture of the Plains Indians: as a gift, payment, bride price, to redress disputes and as a mythical religious object Adoration.

history

When the east of the USA was increasingly populated by European immigrants and their descendants, the plains Indians began to migrate. Former peoples of the East, such as the Sioux or Cheyenne, were driven to the “ Wild West ” by tribes pushing westwards , where they founded the bison hunter cultures in the mid to late 18th century. The Comanche developed into a feared equestrian nation and military power by 1760, controlling access to about seven million bison and displacing other tribes, although they comprised little more than 30,000 people. Their forays into northern Mexico were notorious. At the same time, the internal Indian conflicts also escalated. The Comanche language, who also operated an extensive trading network, became the lingua franca of the southern Plains.

For almost a century the new horsemen remained undisturbed there; the Americans regarded the grassy plains as a hostile desert. When gold discoveries became known in various parts of the West in the 1840s, more and more new settlers moved through the Plains. This brought the prairie peoples new sources of income through trade and robberies, but also new diseases and considerable unrest, fear of war and uncertainty.

Around the middle of the 19th century, the Indian wars against the equestrian nomads began . The horse made them serious military opponents who put up considerable resistance. However, with the construction of the first railway lines from east to west, the targeted decimation of the buffalo herds by professional hunters, the development of cattle breeding on the southern plains ( ranching ) and finally the planned settlement and reclamation by farmers, the livelihood and habitat dwindled more and more, so that by 1890 there was the irrevocable demise of the young bison hunter cultures.

Many descendants of the Plains Indians now live on reservations , which often have a much lower standard of living than in the rest of North America. The hardship of the 19th century, but also the impressions of the free riding life have shaped the cultures of these people to this day. Traditions are especially maintained at the Powwows . Since the end of the 20th century there has been a return to consciousness among some tribes: instead of buffalo hunting, buffalos are bred and horse breeding brings some tribes good income.

See also

literature

  • Uli Otto, Till Otto: In the footsteps of the sons of the Great Bear. Investigation of the historical and cultural-historical background of the youth books The Sons of the Great Bear by Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich . Kern, Regensburg 2001 ISBN 3-934983-03-0
  • Signe Seiler: Indians . Tessloff, 1969 ISBN 978-3-7886-0282-6 , pp. 9, 11, 19 ( limited online version in the Google book search)
  • Werner Arens, Hans-Martin Braun: The Indians of North America: history, culture, religion . CH Beck 2004 ISBN 978-3-406-50830-1 pp. 12–12, 22, 29–30, 106ff ( limited online version in the Google book search)
  • Jürgen Döring: Cultural change among the North American Plains Indians. Marburg studies on ethnology, 4th Reimer, Berlin 1984 ISBN 3-496-00769-9
  • James W. Daschuk: Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life. University of Regina Press, Regina 2013; TB 2014
    • French: La destruction des indiens des plaines . Trans. Catherine Ego. Presses Université Laval , 2015; TB 2017

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alfred Hendricks (ed.): Prairie and Plains Indians. Change and Tradition. Siegbert Linnemann Verlag, 1st edition 1996, ISBN 3-89523-080-4 , pp. 24, 26.
  2. ↑ Aram Mattioli: Lost Worlds. A History of the Indians of North America. Stuttgart 2017, p. 222 ff.
  3. ↑ Mattioli, ibid.
  4. ↑ Table of contents, first pages can be viewed in online bookshops
  5. ↑ Table of contents and first pages can be viewed as pdf files via the publisher or search engine