Cultures Clash on the Prairie

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Cultures Clash on the Prairie

• Great Plains

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Native American Life

• Horse and Gun
• Brought be Spanish in 16th Century (1500s)
• Plain Indians became efficient buffalo hunters
• Warfare
• Tribes fought over hunting grounds
• Counting coup touching a live enemy brought
  prestige and honor
• Tribes often called a truce to trade

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Native American Life

• Buffalo
• Provided many of the Native Americans basic needs
• Food jerky or pemmican (mixed with berries and
  fat)
• Clothing and shoes
• Hides used for blankets and teepees.

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Native American Life

• Community made up of a band
• A large, extended family or group of families
• Many bands made up similar language speaking
  tribes
• Men warriors and hunters
• Women butchers, prepared hides
• Tribes ruled by counsels, not dominant leaders

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Manifest Destiny!

• "(It is) ..our manifest destiny to over spread
  and to possess the whole of the continent which
  Providence has given us for the development of
  the great experiment of liberty"
• Quoted by John OSullivan, 1845
• John Gast painting, 1872
• Long held belief that white Americans had a
  God-given right to occupy the entire North
  American continent
• Therefore, Native Americans forfeited their land.

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White Americans Head West

• What lured settlers west?
• Manifest Destiny!
• Silver and Gold went to strike it rich
• Land - Homestead Act (1862) 160 acres free
• Religions
• Criminals
• Romantic ideals Cowboys and Indians, etc