Bison Hunt
This was to produce large quantities of meat, after the introduction of the native horse hunting became an easier way of life and the bison jump was now only for fun.
Pre Horse- Post horse
Time and energy that is wasted stalking and running after pray can be better-spent teaching children, or helping around the camp generally. The numbers of Bison changed dramatically after the introduction of the horse. Ok so the bison jump meant many fatalities and lots was wasted, weather by foot or by horse. But when the horse came there were many, many more skills for hunting so the jump was used less.
The Sun dance
If life wasn’t hard enough the men of the tribe, normally the fitter stronger members did a tribal dance for their sacred God The Waken Tanker. The dance started with men physically connecting them selves with a piece of bone to a large rope. At the end of this you would find a very large pole like structure. The men then leant back and relaxed so the whole of their body weight was being forced onto the chest skin. This went on until the fist “victim” fainted of pain or blood loss, or the normal way the skin and flesh tore!
Buffalo
Buffalo Hide, Meat and Skin was used not one piece of the animal was wasted. The meat was of coarse eaten.
Education
Indian children were brought up in a very different way from us. They were taught as very small children to respect the earth and all living things. They learnt how to respect and behave towards others. The children were incredibly family orientated and always had somebody responsible.
Marriage
Marriage was fairly sensible and divorce was allowed. The women owned the houses (tepees) so if divorce was necessary the man would be left with nothing to find a new wife. There was no ceremony commonly a gift was asked for from the faience to the brides father, this was usually animals of some kind.
Exposure
When older members of a tribe felt to old and weak to carry on travelling around they stayed at the old camp while the other members moved on. They died but this was their wish, they were not scared of dying as they believed that the “after life” was the same as the world they had lived in before.
Conclusion
The north American Indians were perfectly suited to live in the harsh weather conditions that went on all those years ago but today if they were here I doubt they would live a week. Their life was completely right for their time, following the bison, tepees, marriage and death all worked perfectly. Perhaps this is why they did it.
