The Culture of the Plains is a fictional invention from literature, aimed to heighten the value of these indomitable peoples, and, more recently, Hollywood films. The stereotype of the tipi conical tents, the buffalo hunters, and the feather crowns will long live in collective imagination, especially in our culture, where such pseudo-culture born by European cinema is regarded as historically accurate.
Also called “erratic nomadism”, the culture of these Indians of the Plains may be limited to 160 years, between 1730 and 1890.
Before then, these nations – distinct from one another on the basis of language, religion and customs – lived in the regions enclosed by the Atlantic coasts, along the Mississipi and Ohio rivers and around the Great Lakes.
These peoples were mostly farmers, eating 70 percent vegetables and 30 percent meat. In the summer, they made rapid and temporary excursions to the borders of the prairies to get meat, butchered and dried on the site. This dried meat was then carried to the villages, either on their shoulders or with the help of sledges (travois) pulled by dogs.