Curriculum Materials: Art in America
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Image 12 Cadzi Cody Questions: |
The Plains Indians
The American Indians of the Great Plains were among the
last to be affected by the migration of Euro-American
settlers from the east to the west. The acquisition of
horses in the mid-18th century made the Plains peoples
almost entirely nomadic hunters. Their lives and economy
depended upon the vast bison herds on the prairies. Because
the Plains Indians considered the bison sacred, they killed
only what they needed and offered prayers of thanks to the
animals after a hunt. For decades they fought the European
Americans who were senselessly destroying nearly all of the
bison. By the last quarter of the 19th century, the U.S.
government had confined most Plains Indians to
reservations.
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