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Indians of North America
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Vocabulary
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buffalo chips
horses
Kiowas
 tepee
travois
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Key Concepts
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The Kiowas were nomads. They moved
about the Great Plains
following the buffalo.
They were one of the poorest of the Native peoples. They could not farm
because the roots of the grass on the Plains made it too difficult to
break the ground with a digging stick. The Kiowas claimed the land of western Montana.
They were totally dependent on the buffalo
for their way of life. Their houses, clothing, food, blankets, bedding
and fuel came from the buffalo. For fuel they used dried buffalo droppings,
called chips. Kiowa shelters were easy to take apart and move
to a new location. Their shelter was a cone shaped tent called a tepee.
To form the tepee, wooden poles were fastened in a circle and covered
with buffalo skins. The Kiowas built a carrier called a travois
to move their belongings. A travois was made from
two tepee poles held together with a crosspiece. The poles formed an
"A." Belongings were placed on a skin tied between the two
poles. The wide end of the travois was dragged along the ground. The
narrow end was pulled by a dog or horse.
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The Kiowas
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Additional Information
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buffalo - Before
the Europeans began to settle in North America there were 100 million
buffalo. By the end of the 1800s, the buffalo were almost digging stick - The Kiowas did not have the technology of the plow. It was the Spaniards who later introduced the plow to the Native Americans in the Americas. Until the plow was introduced, the Indians uses a digging stick to soften the ground. horse
- In the late 1400s the Europeans brought the horse to America. The
horse was actually on a return trip. A tiny horse ancestor had lived
in America tepee - It was the job of Kiowas woman to put up and take down the tepee. It took about one hour. Sometimes the tepee had to be moved every day. The Kiowas had to keep up with the buffalo. Credits |
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