Monday, August 3, 2009

The Plateau Indians could not live in the same place for very long

They had to move from place to place to find food. Most of the Plateau Indians lived in tepees. A tepee is a cone frame shelter made from long poles covered with woven mats or animal hides. These were very easy to take down and put up again. During the winter, they lived in pit houses. These were made by scooping out the leeward side of a hill and covering the entrance with animal skins. The Plateau Indians used horses or ponies to travel, hunt, and gather food. They usually caught wild horses and broke them, but they also traded, bred, and stole horses. The number of horses a tribe had represented how much wealth they had. Horses were used to pull the Indians' possessions around. They used a travois to do this. A travois consisted of two long poles, each having a different length. They were attached to the animal's shoulder by leather straps. A woven mat covered the gap between the poles.



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