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How the Indians Lived
Food
Some tribes depended almost entirely on agriculture and had permanent
villages, as did the Pueblo peoples of the Southwest. Others depended
almost entirely on hunting, as did the Plains Indians. A few tribes in the
Northwest depended on salmon fishing almost as completely as the Plains
tribes did on buffalo hunting.

Most Indians, however, had to search out every possible food resource.
Typically, corn and other crops would be planted in spring near a permanent
village site. The tribe would then go on a summer hunt, and, because any
large band of Indians would soon kill or frighten off all game in a region,
hunting grounds were changed frequently. The tribe would return to the
village site to harvest crops, then move out again on a fall hunt. A winter
camp might be made in an entirely different location. Stops were scheduled
to gather such food as wild rice or camas roots, and much time was given to
fishing.
Thus most tribes were migratory in a more or less annual pattern. Any of a
number of factors, however, could cause them to migrate to an entirely
different region. For example, hunting grounds were frequently exhausted.
Transportation
Although Central American Indians made wheeled figurines, the wheel
as a transportation device was unknown to the Indians until the arrival of
Europeans. Instead of wagons, the Plains tribes used the travois. It consisted
of two poles bound on either side of an animal, with the other ends dragging
along the ground and a mat or bundle tied between them. Dogs, the Indians'
only fully domesticated animals, were used before horses were obtained,
and could draw only light loads. When horses were acquired, the travois
became practical for long journeys.
The principal form of water transport was the canoe. The bark-frame
canoe was used in northern areas from Alaska to the Atlantic coast. Framed
of spruce (pcea) wood and covered with bark (corteza) (usually birch) sewn
together and made waterproof with pitch, it was light and could be easily
carried. The dugout (caseta/ refugio) canoe was used on the Pacific coast, in
the South, and in parts of the northeast and Great Lakes areas. It was made
of a single log (tronoco), hollowed out by burning or cutting. Some dugouts
were as much as 100 feet (30 m) long.

The bull boat of Missouri River tribes was made of buffalo hide
stretched on a circular framework of willow (sauce) branches. The balsa,
made of rushes tied in bundles, was used by Indians of the Pacific Slope.
Some tribes had no boats; the Blackfeet, for example, used only temporary
rafts.
Housing
In nothing did tribes differ more than in their habitations. Most Indians lived
in single-family dwellings, but many dwelt in large community houses.
The wigwam ( tipi, tienda india) of the Algonquians was a domed or conical
structure framed with poles and covered with bark, rushes, or branches. The
Apache wickiup was a circular brush shelter, sometimes covered with bark
or earth. The Choctaw covered a frame of poles with palmetto leaves. The
tepee of the Plains Indians was similar to the conical wigwam, but was
covered with buffalo skin.
Wigwam.
Wigwam. A wigwam is a domelike dwelling once common among the
Algonquian-speaking Indians of the Eastern Woodlands of North America. It
was usually made of light poles tied together with bark to form an ovalshaped dome. The builder covered this framework with reed mats or bark,
as shown in this illustration.
The longhouse of the Iroquois was a communal house 50 to 100 feet (15 to
30 m) long by about 18 feet (5.5 m) wide. It was made of bark supported by
a framework of poles. The Mandan built circular communal houses, each
about 40 feet (12 m) in diameter. They were built of timber and branches
covered with dirt or clay. The hogan of the Navaho was a mound-shaped
structure, large enough for a single family, made of logs and mud. The
Omaha, Osage, and Pawnee used earth lodges or grass lodges. The most
elaborate community dwellings were the cliff dwellings and pueblos of the
Southwest. They were made of stone, adobe, or coarse plastered
wickerwork, often several stories high.

Clothing
Buckskin (tanned deer hide) was a common material for clothing. Men of
many tribes wore a shirt that hung free over the hips, a breech-cloth,
leggings, and moccasins. Women commonly wore a short-sleeved dress,
reaching below the knee and tied at the waist by a belt. Women also wore
leggings and moccasins. A few tribes wore sandals and some went barefoot,
but moccasins of varied design and decoration were almost universal.

Garments were sewn with a bone awl, and often were elaborately decorated
with shells, porcupine quills, feathers, and, after Europeans came, beads.
Necklaces, armbands, and other articles of personal adornment were
common.

Buffalo robes and, later, blankets served as winter overcoats. Some Indians
in prehistoric times wove fabrics of cotton, hair, fur, mountain-sheep wool,
or feathers.

The feathered headdress, often with long trails, was a late development
among tribes of the Plains, although other Indians used feathers as
ornaments. Many Indians of the East and South wore turbans or headbands.
Along the Pacific Coast hats were of basketry.

Communication
Indians spoke many different languages (see section Language Groups and
Tribes), but a sign language of hand gestures was widely understood by the
tribes between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, from Canada to
Mexico.

Only the Mayas, who lived in Mexico and Central America, had a written
language. The other Indians made many pictographs (pictures or symbols
expressing ideas; called petroglyphs when made on stone). In place of
writing, the Incas of Peru devised the quipu, consisting of cords of different
lengths and colors, which, by the arrangement of knots, recorded accounts
and events. Smoke signals conveyed only a few simple ideas, and usually
required prearrangement.

During the early 19th century, Sequoya, a Cherokee, devised a system of

writing used in printing newspapers and books for his people.

Family Life
In many tribes descent was through the mother, and children were members
of the mother's clan. There was little distinction between mother and aunt,
father and uncle, brother or sister and cousin. This wide relationship was the
basis of a clan, which might be scattered through several bands or villages
of a tribe. Marriage within clans was almost always taboo. Plural marriage
was common; often a man would marry sisters of the same family.

Indians were generally indulgent with children, seldom punishing them, but
taking great pains in training them.

Religion and Ceremony

Myths and folk tales are in great variety among tribes, most of them
showing belief in magic power possessed by the forces of nature. The Great
Spirit was not all-powerful, and the Evil Spirit might be a part of him. Old
Man, of the Blackfeet Indians, was the creator, but he could be tricky, mean,
and sometimes evil, and sometimes he overreached himself and was
defeated. Similar was Old Man Coyote, of the Crows. Sun, his wife Moon, and
their son Morning Star were powerful persons, but had frailties similar to
those of the Greek gods.

The sun dance of many Plains tribes was dedicated to the sun, but these
Indians were not exclusively sun worshipers. There were many dances
whose purpose was to gain benefits from the deitiesfor example, the
buffalo dance, corn dance, and rain dance.

Young warriors sought individual aid by prolonged fasting and prayer in

solitude. They might dream that an animal or bird spoke to them; the
creature would then become the personal medicine (guiding spirit) of the
fasting warrior.

Government
The Iroquois had a well-organized confederacy and decided issues around a
council fire. Sioux buffalo hunting and Pueblo agriculture were highly
organized communal efforts, as were many religious festivals. Tribal
councils, however, generally had little control over the individual, and chiefs
governed only by the powers of personal leadership. Crime was largely a
personal matter. Murder might be avenged by relatives of the victim, or an
indemnity might be paid by the killer.

Secret societies of warriors often exercised considerable police power and

directed hunts and tribal migrations.

Warfare was almost entirely a matter of personal leadership. A young

warrior would announce that he planned a raid; those who wished, joined
him. If he were uniformly successful he would become a popular war chief.
Warfare was a normal state; other tribes were either allies or enemies

Native American Life

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instruments including drums and flute. Native American Food and cooking.
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Discover facts and information about items that were invented by Indians to
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Native American Life - Stone Age Life

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static. They lived in separate tribes across the vast continent of North
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that were available to them. Their North American Life and pre-historic
Stone Age lifestyle only changed when the Europeans appeared. The Native
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Hannah, and Tara

Men

When a boy of the Plains Indian tribe was born, he would be named after an elder or
ancestor of the tribe. As the boy grew up, unless he didnt do anything important his
name would change and would describe a brave act or famous battle they had been
through. As the boy grew up, he was kept farther and farther away from the girls
because the boys would have been training on their fighting skills for war and
horsemanship. The most important goal for a male Plains Indian as they grew up was
to be tough and brave, and to win the approval of the rest of the tribe. When the boy
became good enough with his skills he trained on for most of his life, the boy would
go on his first hunt. When the boy finally reaches manhood, at age seventeen, he
would leave his village for a time to search for his guardian spirit. When the man
came back he would be ready to join the warriors of the rest of the tribe in battle. If
the man was not in battle he would be hunting for buffalo for the village. Hunting for
buffalo was not an easy job, in fact it could take days or even weeks to find the herd.
When they did find the buffalo herd, they wouldnt kill them right away, but go back
to the village to tell the chief the good news, and then the chief would send them to
kill them or may not. When they did kill the buffalo, they would only kill the amount
they needed, and feast on them
Religion

Life for the plains Indians was considered one big religious ceremony. The whole world
was a mystery. The sky, sun, moon and earth were all called Wankan Tanka, the Great
Spirit with no end. They were also considered individual gods. Thunder and wind were
also gods. Sacred powers always worked in circles. The cycle of the sun and moon was
a circle, the eagles flight and the winds movement. Wankan Tankas symbol was a
circle. It stood for the Earth, the Teepee and the Sacred Hoops. The tribes would
flourish as long as the circle was unbroken. The plains Indians didnt need a priest to see
the gods face to face. They would communicate with the Great Spirit through dreams
and visions.
They would do so privately, inventing their own ways to communicate. The only thing a
man needed to have visions was his medicine bundle and his pipe. He would only open
his bundle in private, for the things in it, pebbles, oddly shaped roots and animal bones
and claws, were very sacred and had lives of their own. Not all religious ceremonies
were private though. One of the best examples of this was the Sundance. It was a ritual
of self-torture, where men would dance for four days without food or water until they
would faint. To start the ritual, scouts would search for a cottonwood tree to kill to
become the sacred dance pole. They would treat it as a warrior, talking to it respectfully.
Four women would chop down the tree, which was not aloud to touch the ground. The
tree would be mounted in the center of camp, and the dance would begin. On the fourth
day of the Sundance, warriors would run stakes through the top layer of their skin on
their chests and backs. They would tie these stakes to thongs, which connected to the
pole and were weighed down by buffalo skulls. They would dance around the pole in a

circle, slowly moving backwards and trying to break free from the pole. Eventually, the
weight of the skulls would break the thongs, and the men would be free. If any flesh
was ripped off, it would be an offering to the gods. Since the dance lasted four days,
many people would faint from exhaustion before the dance was over. While
unconscious, they would have dreams and hallucinations that would tell them what to
do and how to live their life for the rest of the year until the next Sundance.
Women
Women of the Great Plains played a very important role in society. You might think that
men did all the hard work and women had the easy jobs. However that is incorrect. Each
woman would own a tipi; one significant and time-consuming job that women had to do
was to pitch the tipi. The women would have to gather all there goods and their tipi,
whenever the chief would decide to move to another area. Another tedious, however
crucial job they had to do was to tan hides. Tanning hides included skinning a buffalo
then putting it out to dry in the sun. After the skin was dry they would make clothing or
a tipi cover. Buffalo were very key to the people of the plains, not only did they make
their clothes out of them, they also cooked and used them for food. The main job that
the men would have to do was to hunt buffalo. Women were the ones who were
responsible for cooking the animal. The women would do all of the cooking, and
gathering. In addition to cooking, they also had to raise the children. The women didnt
always work; they also had time for fun. Sometimes they would take a break from their
work and play a game called Shinny. Shinny is like field hockey. Back then they
would use sticks and a buckskin ball. It was very important for a woman to keep her
reputation as a good housekeeper, if not she would be considered useless. Women of the
Great Plains had to do the most work. A tribe would not be able to survive without
women.
Children
The lives of Plains Native Americans varied depending on the tribe, but generally the
life of Plains Native American children was not bad. Their parents were kind to them.
They never hit their children, but they did emphasize strength. For example a baby in a
Native American society was not supposed to cry. If the child had been cared for, and it
still cried, then its mother would put its cradleboard somewhere away from camp. If the
tribes enemies heard a bay crying that could alert them to the other tribe and give away
their position. When children got a little older they learned about their culture. They
were told stories, and attended ceremonies. The rituals taught them about there religion.
To learn about the skills they would need for their life, they copied their parents and
other adults. Boys would ride fake horses. The children also played a game called
shinny to entertain themselves. The game shinny was like hockey; they would push a
ball into a goal using wooden sticks. Girls would make small versions of tepees to
imitate their parents. They also played with dolls made out of buckskin. As the children
matured they started taking more roles in the tribe. When boys were fourteen, and close

to being an adult, He would go on to search for his guardian spirit. The boy would wait
on top of a hill for four days. During this time, he would watch for his guardian spirit,
and some had visions of the spirits. They would also go on their first hunt around this
age. Growing up as a Plains Native American was not bad and definitely prepared them
for tribe lives.
Clothing

The native Americans used quills elk teth and for a very few men eagle feathers and
shells for decorations on their clothing they also used fringes which were both for
decoration and to help keep water of the clothes native ameracan men wore
breechcloths leggings and shirts the woman woreskirts or dresses made out of hide deer
hide or buckskin hide imew thread or plantfibe were used to sew things to gether
children aften went around naked moccasins were traditional foot wear either rabbit
skin or buffalo hides were used to keep people warm headreses were called
warbonnots the war chief usually had the longest hairrdresses a buffalo was often used
to record history the dresses were made out of one buffallo skins or 5 dear skins
because dear skins were smaller leggings were made 2 dearskins one for each legs
mineral and plant dyes were used to die cloth

Native American clothing was simple for daily life. The men wore leggings, a
breechcloth and a shirt. The women wore a dress or a shirt and a skirt and shorter
leggings. Leggings were made out of deerskin one for each leg then bound with sinew,
which is taken from the backbone of a buffalo. Skirts were made out of a dear skin and
wrapped around the waste dresses were sewn at the shoulder and were made out of five
dear skins or one or two buffalo skins. In the winter robes of buffalo or rabbit skins
were used to keep warm