Describe in your own words the importance of the buffalo in the lives of the Plains Indians and describe how the Indians caught and killed the buffalo

The buffalo's great importance to the Plains Indians meant that the tribes had to set up their home close to a heard. This meant that, as the buffalo roamed constantly, the Indians were obliged to follow, making them nomads. Indians would locate the buffalo through either young braves who searched for them, or by connecting to the 'Great Spirit' through their tribal dances. They believed that when they performed their tribal dance, buffalo would eventually be delivered to them. These dances could last for weeks.

Once the buffalo's were located, they had to then hunt them down. Up until the 16th Century, this was an operation that required a large amount of patience, skill and speed. Because their weapons were quite short, the Indians had to get up close to the buffalo. However, when the Spanish traveled over to America in the 16th century, they brought horses with them. Indians first obtained horses through trading, and then started breeding their own. Horses became a symbol of great wealth and power, and so were in great demand. The arrival of horses radically changed the way buffalo were hunted. The Indians soon became very skillful riders, and could reach great speeds on the horses and catch the buffalo at very close range. However, some people believed the arrival of the horse made the Indians careless about the number of buffalo they hunted, and so aided in the buffalo's near extinction. Also, because the buffalo became so easy to hunt down the Indians felt they no longer needed another source of food to support them, and so stopped growing any kind of crops. This meant that if ever the buffalo became hard to find and hunt down, a tribe could literally starve to death.

Once the buffalo had been caught, a tribe could live off it for many months. The women of the tribe always prepared the buffalo for whatever uses, as the men would often be out hunting. The meat off the buffalo would hung from a wooden frame to dry out. It could then be stored away. The skin of the buffalo would be stretched out with wooden pegs, scraped repeatedly to remove any unwanted flesh, and then made into clothing, equipment, and tipi covers. It would then be beautifully decorated with patterns, or pictures of animals and people.

Through the many uses that the buffalo had for the Plains Indians, and the way in which they depended upon this animal to provide such a vast quantity of necessary equipment, shows that the buffalo was indeed a very important part of the Plains Indians way of life. If this animal were to die out, then the Indians would have followed, as it provided food, tools, weapons and clothing for all the tribes. Without the buffalo, their culture would have been destroyed.