The Plain Indians

Hunting and Various Weapons

There was a variety of different weapons used for hunting and fighting including tomahawks (a light ax, typically having a stone or bone head, used by North American Indians as a tool and a weapon), war clubs and daggers. In the early time, approximately thousands of years ago, many of the Plain Indians relied on the use of spears made from stone points, however, today it is replaced to bows and arrows made from buffalo hides and metal. Because arrows' point is smaller than spears, they had greater success on penetrating skin of an animal or person. Another advantage of using an arrow is that it can shoot a longer range, greater accuracy and possibility of continuous shots when fired by a bow compared to throwing spears using barehands. Today, many of the Plain Indians archery skills have developed into longer range, and greater strength.

In the early 1700's, after the Europeans arrived in North America, the Cree (a member of an Algonquian people living in central Canada) traded and introduced guns to the Plain Indians. Many of the the Plain Indians were interested in using European metals for hunting buffalos campared than using guns as since then, guns were not as accurate and took long amount of time to reload bullets for the buffalo hunters. In the late 1800, guns became more popular but the buffalos had almost all disappeared from the Plains. Today, a combination of guns and arrows are used, arrows are used more compared to guns nowadays. As conclusion, the white man partially changed the lives of the Indians.

Many of the warriors dressed in skins made from buffalo or wolf. When buffalos see the men, they would run disorderly, thus, the warriors would shoot them with bows and arrows. Some others would slash them using tomahawks, stab them with taggers and throw spear at them as they run past.When the buffalo is hunted, the women and children gather around and drag the meat back to the camp. They would also do the same to antelopes,deers,bears and sometimes rabbits. To find out more information on how they hunted, please read on.

The most recognized and traditional way to hunt down a huge animal is to drive the whole flock into a small compound along with using spears or arrows to shoot them as they pass by. If the conditions (huge animal is not surrounded to small compound) do not meet, another technique is using the buffalo jump method. The warriors tempt or force the buffalos to a high cliff. Thus, the hunters below the cliff would kill these animals. Another main methos used is using the buffalo pound method. A hunter would lure the buffalos into the bushes. The other hunters would gradually attack the animals behind the bushes, as a conclusion, giving the buffalo a surprise attack.

However, in 1745, the buffalo pound method and the buffalo jump method as horses were introduced. Horses changed a lot of the Plain Indian's life. Years after, horses became popular and again, the different techniques began to fade out in the history since hunting buffalo on foot is more difficult than hunting them on horses as horses could run faster and the hunter could run and chase after along with the horse, keeping along the buffalo's pace. Soon, flock of warriors or hunters would surround the herd of buffalos and gradually fire bullets with gun or fire arrows at them with bows. Horses are also used used for two purposes, carrying items and transportation. Trades between different tribes began to gradually increase. With horses, they could carry heavy items like man and women as well as a variety of furnitures (travois) after dogs were introduced. Dogs could certainly will not be able to carry man and woman... Traps were then used to catch wolves, lynx, coyotes and rabbits.

Eagle are also a source of food for the Plan Indians. In order to catch an eagle, a hunter dig a hole or find a natural dug-out hole and a hunter would hide in the pit with his partner hunter covering the pit with leaves. Bait is tied to branches to attract the eagles. When an eagle(s) swoops down, a signal is given from a hunter. When the eagle is eating the bait, the hunter would immediately grab its legs through the hole to prevent it from flying away with the bait whilst the second hunter rushes to grab it before the eagle tries to cause serious damage with its claws to the hunter.