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Plains Indians Research Paper

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The Plains Indians ensued two principal varieties of life: farming and hunting. The farmers lived in perpetual villages. These tribes were the Arikaras, Pawnees, and Wichitas (who spoke languages of the Caddoan family) and additionally the Mandans, Hidatsas, Omahas, Otos, and Osages (who spoke Siouan languages). Their residences within the northern plains were generally fabricated from logs coated with dirt. Within the southern plains, their residences were coated in grass. Women farmed, prepared, and preserved food crops. The men hunted, fished, and cultivated tobacco. Twice the year the men would endure extended hunting trips for buffalo. Once within the early summer after their crops were planted and so once more in autumn after the harvest. …show more content…

Army grew out of the westward movement of Americans. The territorial accessions of the Mexican War of 1846–48, followed by the discovery of gold in California, set off a migration across the plains that ended only in the final decades of the nineteenth century as farmers and stockmen began to occupy the plains themselves. Plains warfare, however, centered mainly on securing the transcontinental travel routes and protecting travelers rather than actual residents from Indian aggression. Indian hostility arose from resentment over the inroads of travelers on such Indian resources as game, timber, and grass. Typically, the major wars with the Plains tribes followed treaties negotiated by government commissioners that bound the Indians to settle on a designated reservation. The military was then called in to make them go, or to make them return once they had moved, discovered the misery of reservation life, and …show more content…

The army maintained a system of forts at strategic locations and fielded heavy offensive columns burdened by slow‐moving supply trains. The Indians fought with hit‐and‐run tactics that exploited environmental factors and avoided open engagement unless the risk was small. The individual warrior excelled over the typical regular in virtually every test of combat proficiency, but in open battle, this was offset by military organization, discipline, command, and firepower. In general, the army prevailed when the Indians abandoned their orthodoxy and fought by white rules, or when commanders abandoned their orthodoxy and fought by Indian

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