Products of Plains Native Americans !

Native American Tools

Native Americans needed many tools in their daily lives. Since buffalo was their main source of food, shelter, and tools, Native Americans used the horns of the buffalo to make utensils such as spoons and knives. While the spoons would be used for eating, the knives could also be used for cutting. Buffalo fur was used to make ropes. Ropes held things together, such as bows, or sticks for teepees, their main shelter. Bows were critical for the hunting that was their main source of food. Scrapers made from sharp bones or rocks were used to scrape the fat off of the buffalo meat, and this fat could be made into candles. They made hammers by using skin straps to bind stone heads to wooden handles. Hammers were vital to pound pegs into the ground in order to anchor buffalo hide, important in building their structures. Native Americans used poles for certain games, providing entertainment. Many of these tools, such as hammers, knives and spoons are still used today. Of course, tools have evolved and are used for both the same and different purposes. Pegs are used for holding tents down even today, and buffalo hide is still used to make rope. These tools have evolved in the way that different materials are used to make them and they are needed for different purposes. Of the many tools that Native Americans used, many are still in use today.

Weapons

The tribes of the Great Plains are very well known for their weapons. A frequently used weapon was the bow and arrow. To make the bowstrings, they used bison tendons. Another common weapon was the club. Clubs were made out of solid wood, usually oak, and had either nails or porcupine quills sticking out of the sides. One of the most well known weapons the Great Plains used was the tomahawk. The tomahawk is any hatchet like implement with a stone head. It was used to throw at enemies. These weapons helped the Native Americans kill the buffalo, which they used to make weapons, food, clothes, and their houses. Without these weapons the Native Americans of the Great Plains would not have been able to survive.

Clothes

Native American clothing is very close to an art form. There were no stores for them to go and buy clothes; they made their clothes from all natural animal hides. It was truly an art form. Only women made clothes, for it was a complicated process. The hides that were used were most commonly buffalo or deer. They were decorated with a variety of dyes made from different organic sources such as berries, roots, bark, grass and insects. They wore plain clothes for everyday life, women clothed in long dresses and leggings and men wearing shirts and pants in the winter and a simple covering that was remarkably similar to the front of an apron on the front and back. On special occasions or large feasted they wore highly decorated and trimmed clothes. After the Europeans came most clothes were heavily decorated with colorful beads. But before and still after the Europeans came they used feathers, porcupine quills, elk teeth and bear claws. To make such intricate pieces of clothing, they sewed pieces with porcupine quills instead of modern needles. Their clothes were a symbol of normality, but yet they were beautiful.

Art

Most art for the Native Americans of the Great Plaines was mostly ornamentation for things they already have. Before Europeans came their main equipment was paint made from ground plants, beads made of stone, bone, shell, and animal teeth. Most of art was related to the spiritual world. For instance colors represented directions which represent sacred beings. It was believed that if a woman used a sacred beings color in the art on her clothing then she would have the protection of that sacred being. Women mostly created geometric weaved and beaded art and men mostly painted life figures such as humans and animals. The Native Americans weren’t very worried about realism in their art, so when the Europeans came they deemed their art primitive and childish. Native American Art can give us glimpses into the past. Their art tells us their virtues and what they thought was important. Native American art is a window into their culture. All of the products that Native Americans used in their daily lives, helped develop their culture.

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