The Pawneeof the Great Plains

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The Great Plains…………………………………………………………………………………………..2Food…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3Homes………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4Clothes…………………………………………………………………………………………………………5Buffalo………………………………………………………………………………………………………….6Glossary………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7

Table of Contents

The Great Plains The Great Plains is in the central area of North America It had very hot temperature and rarely gets rain. It is very flat and grassy. Large herds of buffalo lived in the Great Plains which meant there was plenty of hunting. The temperature is around forty-five to one hundred degrees Fahrenheit. The Rocky Mountains border the Great Plains. A tribe that would have lived in the Great Plains would be the Pawnee.

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The Great PlainsThe Great Plains

Food There was an abundance of food for the Pawnee such as buffalo , hens , quail , raccoon , prairie chicken , skunk , otter , rabbit , sunflower , watermelon , beans , squash and pumpkins. Men harvested the crops and woman ground the corn. In all the Pawnee had a big supply of food.

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pumpkin , squash and beans

Indian cornCarrots , cucumbers , potatoes and corn

Squash

Homes The Pawnee built homes called earth lodges made out of grass , mud and dirt. These homes were made to look like domes of the sky. Villages were made up of eleven or twelve earth lodges. Sometimes for bigger tribes they built these buildings called longhouse which could contain a whole tribe. The Pawnee built villages near the river so they could drink fresh water and get good soil and fire wood.

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Earth Lodge Earth Lodge

Clothes The Pawnee men wore different kinds of feathers and skins. Buffalo and deer skins were often worn for warmth in the winter. Woman often wore beaded dresses and beaded moccasins. Chiefs wore feathered head dresses. They decorated their clothes with elk teeth , bear claws and feathers on special occasions.

Pawnee clothes

Pawnee dancer

Buffalo Pawnee tribes used every part of the buffalo they killed. The Pawnee used buffalo hides for pelts. Buffalo hide can stretch twenty yards. After the pelt is stretched and dried the Pawnee cut the hide into small shawl like shapes. A normal sized hide could provide twenty to thirty pelts. The Pawnee believed that the buffalo was a gift from the gods. When the Pawnee hunted buffalo they tricked the buffalo into jumping off the cliffs. At the bottom of the cliffs there were Pawnee to slaughter the buffalo if they didn’t die when they hit the ground. This was one of the many ways of hunting buffalo. The Pawnee got lots of valuable items from the Pawnee.

6Picture of buffalo

Glossarytemperature : the degree of hot or cold in something usually measured by a thermometer

herds : a large group of animals

contain : holding something inside itself

abundance : to have plenty of something

harvested : to collect or gather up crops

moccasins : a soft shoe or slipper without a heel

occasions : a special or important event

hides : an animals skin used to make leather

slaughter : to kill animals for their meat

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