Diversity and Cultural Modification

Kiowa Mother: In the traditional women's dress, a full garment with flowing half sleeves.

In view of the vast difference in the people who first inhabited the New World, the one most objective method of classifying Native Americans is by six language families, which in turn may be broken down into branches and dialects spoken by specific tribes. It is important to remember that the term tribe is principally a political designation, like the white man's concept of nation, and that tribes of the same language family might be physically separated, or even at war with one another. For example, the Otoes and Osages are of the Siouan family, but of different branches. In the early nineteenth century these tribes were at war with one another. On the other hand, the Plains Indians developed a sign language comparable to that used by deaf-mutes, so that an Algonkian-Cheyenne could communicate quite effectively with a Siouan-Omaha.

The six Plains Indian language families, with their respective tribal divisions are: Algonkian family (Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Gros Ventre, Piegan, Plains Cree, and Plains Ojibwa tribes); Athabaskan family (Kiowa-Apache and Sarsi tribes); Caddoan family (Arikara, Pawnee, and Wichita tribes); Kiowan family (Kiowa tribe); Siouan family (Assiniboin, Crow, Dakota, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kansa-Kaw, Missouri, Mandan, Omaha, Osage, Otoe, and Ponca tribes); and the Uto-Aztecan family (Comanche, Wind River, Shoshone, and Ute tribes).

Typically, the Plains Indians were hunters who relied on bison for their diet, and bison hides and deerskins for clothing and domestic uses. Their only domestic animal was the dog, used for packing, traction, and occasionally as a dietary supplement. As skin-dressers and painters the Plains Indians were highly accomplished. Porcupine-quill embroidery by the women reached a level of considerable artistry, while the decorative arrangement of feathers was matched by no other Native American group. In contrast to their western and southwestern neighbors, the Plains Indians showed no interest in basketry and weaving, nor was wood carving developed to any significant degree.

The manufacture of bows, arrows, axes, and clubs for hunting and battlefield encounters represents a high point in Plains Indian technology. During the late Woodland Period ceremonial smoking became commonplace, and in time this custom took on profound political, ceremonial, and religious significance. Religious beliefs and activity varied a great deal, but all Plains groups granted deference to a Great Spirit that pervaded nature and even the Creation itself. Entirely incomprehensible to the heavenly views of the white invader, the presence of Wakan or Wacondah was experienced in animals, trees, rocks, and sacred hills.

Indian Territory: Grass lodges near Anadarko, Oklahoma, 1898.

By the time Spanish conquistadors had penetrated the Central Plains in the mid-sixteenth century, several subcultures had developed. On the eastern fringe (in present eastern Kansas and Nebraska, and western Iowa and Missouri) Siouan-speaking Osage, Kansa-Kaw, Otoe, Iowa, Ponca, Missouri, and Omaha peoples revealed marked influences of the ancient Hopewellian mound-builder culture. Pottery manufacture was well developed, clan organization was a vital element in society, and the elaborate ceremonial life of the more nomadic tribes to the west was of little importance. Farming was an important aspect of day-to-day existence, with women tending the maize, squash, and melon fields in the bottomlands of the Kaw and Platte valleys, Caddoan speaking Pawnees and Wichitas resided in circular, earth-covered or grass-matted lodges, unlike the skin-covered, mobile tipis of the Cheyennes and Kiowas. Shamans (the medicine man) with unusual insights into the supernatural dimension predicted the course of future events, diagnosed diseases, and performed a variety of magical functions. Certainly their powers recall the elaborate ritualism of the Incan or Mayan cultures, with sun worship, star cults, and sacrificial customs. And in the north, the agricultural villages of the Mandans and Hidatsas - strategically positioned on the commanding bluffs of the Missouri River - provided the trade centers where roving bands of Arapahoes and Dakotas could exchange meat, robes, and horses for the technological products of the white men.

In short, the modern Hollywood and television version of a "typical" Plains Indian confronting a gallant U.S. cavalryman somewhere west of Fort Laramie is at best a stereotype, and at worst, a deliberate misrepresentation. It minimizes cultural diversity, ignores the tremendous impact of the white man's diseases, especially smallpox and cholera and it glosses over the fact that in the wake of Coronado's trek in 1541, Spain, France, and England struggled to gain control of the Great Plains. The fact that they failed where the young United States eventually succeeded the Plains Indians would come to understand only too well.