The solution for the Indians to not having enough food was the buffalo. The buffalo is the biggest connection between the different aspects and values of their Indian lives. With an animal like the buffalo, the Native Americans were provided with about a week's supply of food and along with that, new material for clothing. Since some tribes like the Sioux could not grow crops as it was against their beliefs, they could hunt. If a buffalo was hunted down by a nomad tribe, it would be provided for housing.
2. The next big problem was water, as the plains were very dry and did not have much. The solution to this was the Mississippi river. They followed the buffalos, which lead them to a water source (as the buffalos would be heading to water to drink). There could also be a small stream nearby for the Indians to wash in, and they could have also collected rain water to drink. The average rainfall on the Plains was 38cm.
3. Unpredictable weather. It was very difficult at the time to find shelter from the extreme and always changing weather conditions, and the shortage of trees meant that it would be hard to build cabins, as well as the fact that they would have to build cabins every time they moved to keep hunting buffalo. The solution to this was the tipi. This was the perfect idea as it could be easily packed up and moved around when the tribes needed to hunt, did not need much wood, and it's shape gave it strength during bad weather. This tipi kept them cool during summer, and warm during winter.
4. Another problem was disease. Plain Indians did not want to die, as they thought it was a 'waste'. They especially didn't want to die in battle, as they thought 'Why die when you can fight another battle?'. As they lived on the plains, they could easily catch diseases such like malnutrition or fever and they also got a lot of diseases when the Americans came. They got these diseases as they were not immune to them yet. This was solved by having medicine men. These medicine men had to try and cure the Indians when they were wounded in battle and when they were ill. As the Indians believed in spirits and the spirit world, they would use spirits to cure the Indians and make medicine out of herbs. The medicine men also helped the Indians contact the spirits to give them good luck and help them win their battles. It is to be said that the medicine men could also have visions of men in the tribe, and these men were very important because of their ability to contact spirits and living things. The chief also took advice from them on whether to go to battle or not. They used to also think that circles were important, and thought the world moved and worked in circles. Dances, visions and religion was all very imporant too.
5. When the Americans came to the Great Plains wanting to live and take the land of the Great Plains, it became a big problem. They promised the Indians that they would be able to keep their share of the land, but that promise was not fulfilled. In 1840, there were about 13 million buffaloes on the Plains, but by 1885 there were only 200 buffaloes left. This was because the Americans wanted to wipe out the Native Americans, and they did this by cutting off their main source of food. Men were also hired to kill the Indians, or the Indians were 'trained' to act like Americans, which meant they could not follow their traditions and religions, as well as their buffalo hunting. The solution to this conflict was actually war. Some battles were won by the Americans, and some were won by the Native Americans. One of these battles included the Battle of Little Big Horn. But war is not a solution.
The solution to the war for the Plain Indians was to be brave, and hope for a better future. Of course, the other solution is to win the war itself. To help in battle, they developed techniques like
scalping and counting coup. They also had weapons like bows and arrows and pipe
tomahawks.