Woodland Tribes Move to the Plains

1
Woodland Tribes Move to the Plains

• Chapter 3, Section 2

2
The Crow

• The Crow people arrived in Montana after decades
  of migration.
• They are relatives of the Hidatsa (North Dakota.)
• The Crows ancestors lived in the woodlands near
  the Great Lakes.

3
The Crow

• In the early 1600s a band of about 500 Crow
  broke away from the Hidatsa and moved to Wyoming
  and Montana.
• They were called the Apsaalooke (ab-SAH-lah-gah)
  which means, children of the large-beaked bird.

4
The Blackfeet

• The Blackfeet people share language roots with
  Algonquian people of the east coast.
• In the early 1700s, three bands came to live
  permanently in northern Montana

5
The 3 Bands of the Blackfeet

• The Northern Blackfeet are called the Siksika
  (sik-sik-AH.)
• The Blood (Kainah)
• The Piegan (Pikuni)
• The Blackfeet call themselves the Niitsitape
  (nee-it-see-TAH-peh) which means, the real
  people.

6
Gros Ventre

• The Gros Ventre are descended from a band that
  broke away from the Arapaho to settle in central
  and eastern Montana.
• There they allied themselves with their
  neighbors, the Blackfeet.

7
Gros Ventre

• The Gros Ventre call themselves Aaninin
  (ah-ha-NEE-nin), which means white clay people
  or upright people.

8
The Assiniboine

• The name Assiniboine (ahs-nee-PWAN) means stone
  cookers, which refers to their method of
  cooking food on hot stones.
• They call themselves the Nakoda, meaning
  generous people.
• This tribe was also from the east, but gradually
  moved into Montana.

9
The Métis

• As French and Scottish trappers moved through the
  woodlands in search of furs, they sometimes had
  children with Native American women.
• The part-Indian, part-European (usually French)
  people were called Métis.
• The Métis mostly stayed in groups, forming
  communities from the Great Lakes to Montana.

10
The Cree and Chippewa

• The Cree and Chippewa people also occasionally
  hunted through our area before finally settling
  in South-East Montana.

11
Tribal Lifestyles

• By 1700, many tribes shared ways of living to
  adapt to Montanas environment.
• Groups that moved from Montana may have
  previously grown crops or relied on fishing, but
  when they moved to the dry northern plains, all
  tribes became hunter-gatherers.
• They harvested plants, berries and roots, and
  hunted. They lived in tipis that they could move
  easily.

12
The Seasonal Round

• People gathered food and medicine according to an
  annual cycle called the seasonal round.
• The seasonal round is the pattern of harvesting
  various foods according to the season.

13
The Seasonal Round

• The Salish began to dig roots in the spring
  bitterroot and camas.
• Strawberries, huckleberries and chokecherries
  followed in the summer.

14
The Seasonal Round

• Winter was a time for the elders to tell stories,
  passing down wisdom and history to the young.
• In the winter men trapped and fished.
• Pemmican, a traditional food made of dried meat,
  fat, and berries, was an important food for all
  Plains people.

15
The Seasonal Round

• During the winter months, tribes of the Montana
  plains often moved west into valleys.
• Here they were protected from the wind and close
  to water and fire wood.
• Bison often wintered in the valleys, and hunting
  continued in the early winter.

16
Cultural Differences

• Though many Montana tribes had cultural
  similarities, each tribe had its own identity and
  language.
• Each favored its own clothing and tipi designs
  and each had its own hairstyles and decorations.
• All Plains Indians wore moccasins, but each had
  its own recognizable design.

17
Cultural Differences

• Tribes also structured their societies
  differently.
• A tribe is made of Native people with a shared
  ancestry.
• Hunter-gatherer tribes were organized into
  smaller bands led by proven male leaders.
• The band was flexible people or families could
  leave and join another band if they wished to.

18
Cultural Differences

• Sedentary tribes (that did not move around) were
  divided into family-based clans.
• In some clans, women owned all property, selected
  leaders and decided important issues.
• Almost all tribes also had small societies,
  ranging from military societies, police
  societies, and youth societies. Each society had
  its own dress, dances and songs.

A member of the Omaha tribes warrior society
performs a grass dance
19
Trade Networks

• Indians of this region have traded widely for
  centuries.
• Bitterroot and camas are collected from the
  mountains Obsidian and chert from the
  Yellowstone region Meat, hides and sweetgrass
  from the plains.
• Sweetgrass is a plant used for ceremonies.

20
Cultural Differences

• All of these goods were exchanged with far-away
  tribes for things like shells from the coast,
  pipestone from Minnesota, native copper from the
  Great lakes and Knife River flint from North
  Dakota.
• The Blackfeet sold pemmican to villages nearly
  1,000 miles away and every tribe traded for
  tobacco. All of this was carried on foot!
• New products like European knives, hatchets, pots
  and beads moved quickly. Some reached Montana 200
  years before white men did.

21
Cultural Differences

• Trade networks also strengthened relationships
  between tribes.
• To build a healthy trade system tribes had to be
  able communicate well, have a solid relationship,
  and be able to prove their trustworthiness.
• In this way, many trading partners became close
  allies.

22
Trade Networks

• Even tribes living very near to each other could
  not speak each others languages, but all tribes
  used similar sign language to communicate and
  trade.
• In this way a Hidatsa trader could communicate
  with any tribe within thousands of miles.