Section 3: Pueblo and Plains Culture

Section 3: Pueblo and Plains Culture

vocabulary

Other Jumanos lived a more settled life along the Rio Grande where it flows from present-day El Paso to Big Bend National Park. They were farmers who used natural irrigation methods long before the arrival of the Spanish. The settled, or Pueblo, Jumanos raised corn, squash, beans, and other vegetables for food. When there was no rain and the crops failed, the Jumanos gathered and ate mesquite beans, prickly pear tunas, and other edible cactus. They also hunted small animals, deer, and buffalo.

Jumanos had distinctive striped tattoos on their faces. These markings made it easy for a member of another tribe to recognize the individual as a peaceful trader. Men cut their hair short except for one long lock to which they tied colorful feathers. Women wore their hair in long braids.

A typical Jumano house was large, perhaps 28 by 30 feet, and made of sun-dried earth and straw called adobe. The flat roof, made of poles and branches, was covered with adobe. Adobe houses stayed cool in summer and warm in winter. Because the climate was very dry, these houses lasted for years.

One group of Pueblo people were the Jumanos. They lived by trading and hunting bison throughout present-day Texas, New Mexico, and Northern Mexico. Jumanos acted as middlemen, or go-betweens, for the eastern farming tribes, such as the Caddos, and the western Peublo people who lived in cities built on the sides of cliffs. The Plains Jumanos traded agricultural products—such as corn, squash, and beans—for animal skins and meat. They also traded for decorative items such as paint pigments, turquoise, and feathers. Their arrows were so well made that the eastern tribes were eager to trade for them.

middlemen

adobe

tepee

dealers or agents acting as go-betweens for the prducers of goods and the retailers of consumers

a shelter made of tanned hides fastened to a frame-work of poles

building material made of sun-dried earth and straw

Independent Practice

In your vocabulary books, or on your computer, use your glossary to write down each vocabulary word and definition.

Once you are finished, show a teacher your work, put up all of your materials and quietly go to free time!

About the time that the Spanish were exploring the Plains homes of Jumanos, the Apaches were moving south onto the Plains. The Jumanos fought to maintain their territory and their trade relationships, but the Apaches prevailed. Long before Texas became part of the United States, the Jumanos almost disappeared. Some moved into Mexico, and others joined other Native American bands.

Another Pueblo people, the Tiguas, moved to Ysleta near present-day El Paso after a revolt by Pueblo tribes in New Mexico in 1680. Their descendants live in the same area today. The state of Texas recognized the Tigua people as Texas Native Americans in May of 1967 and set up a reservation for them.

Answer the following questions:

1. What large animal did the Jumanos hunt?

2. Where did Jumano men get tatoos?

3. What was a Jumano house made out of?

4. What native american tribe fought the Jumano's and forced them from their land?

The Plains Cultures

The way of life of the Plains culture changed with the arrival of horses. Horses crossed the Bering land bridge from Asia at the same time humans did, but many animals became extinct on this continent at the end of the last Ice Age. Spaniards reintroduced horses to the Americas beginning around A.D 1500. There was no animal more suited for life on the plains. Spanish horses were swift and strong and could eat any available grass. Although most people of the Plains culture did not have horses until the late 1600s, they soon learned to use horses to their best advantage. With horses, the people of the Plains culture became outstanding hunters in peace and dangerous foes in war.

The Kiowas

Like the other Plains Indians, the horse, the buffalo, and the tepee were very important elements of the culture. The horse provided freedom of movement and speed for hunting game. The buffalo provided almost everything the group would need to survive including food, hides, robes, and horns for making spoons and needles. Even the buffalo hoof could be turned into glue.

Buffalo, actually a type of bison, had roamed the plains for centuries. They were found nearly everywhere in Texas, except in the Piney Woods region. In 1850 about 20 million buffalo lived on the plains. By the late 1800s, however, white hunters had slaughtered millions of the animals. Plains people depended on the buffalo for food, and the destruction of the great herds meant the end of the Plains people’s way of life.

The Comanche’s shared the Plains of Texas with their allies, the Kiowas. Like the other nomadic people of the Plains, the Kiowas were prepared to move quickly and often. In times of danger, whole camps could be packed up and moved in 30 minutes. Families lived in tepees of tanned hides that were easy to move. Up to 20 tanned hides were fastened around a framework of 20 to 24 poles. The hides were sewn together and usually were decorated with beautiful paintings. The entrance—an opening 3 or 4 feet high—faced the east, so that the sun could warm the interior in the early morning. A fire burned in the center of the tepee, and beds of willow branches and animal skins lined the sides.

The Kiowas, like the Apaches and Comanche’s, fought to maintain their way of life but finally were forced onto reservations.

The Kiowas had always prized tradition and ceremony. They kept histories of their travels and painted pictures on buffalo hides to record important events in their lives. Every season, the Kiowas held ceremonies and festivals. The most important event was the annual sun dance in June. The Kiowas believed that honoring the sun would bring happiness, plentiful buffalo, and victory in war. All males were expected to become warriors.

The Tonkawas

The Apaches

Although the Tonkawas depended on buffalo for food and shelter, few herds roamed through Tonkawa hunting grounds. Buffalo were plentiful in the open plains to the west, but hunting there was risky. Fierce Apaches and Comanche’s resented other groups hunting in their territories. Forced to look for other food, the Tonkawas hunted deer, rabbits, turtles, and snakes.

The Lipans spent most of their final years in Texas in desperate warfare. The Spanish threatened from the south, but even more dangerous were the Comanche’s from the north. Outnumbered, the Lipans abandoned their hunting grounds in central Texas and moved westward to the mountains where the Mescaleros lived. A few lived there until the late 1800s. Today most Apaches live on reservations in New Mexico.

The Tonkawas of the Plains culture arrived in Texas in the 1600s. They lived on the southeastern edge of the Edwards Plateau near present-day Austin. Some Tonkawas also lived on the coastal plains to the south or along the eastern rivers.

Answer the following questions:

1. What type of food did the Tonkawas eat?

2. Where did the Apaches come from?

3. What two groups of people threatened the Apaches?

4. In what state do most Apaches live today?

Apaches speak an Athapaskan language similar to the languages of Native Americans in northwest Canada and Alaska. Because of this, anthropologists believe the ancestors of Apaches came from the far north and migrated south along the Rocky Mountains. By 1700 several independent Apache groups had entered Texas. The Mescaleros made their homes in the mountains ranging from New Mexico through West Texas into northern Mexico. The Lipans lived in the Hill Country of central Texas north to the Red River.

The Comanche’s

Until 1875, the Comanche’s fought desperately to keep their lands and way of life. The destruction of the buffalo herds and a loss of many horses forced them to accept reservation life in present-day Oklahoma.

Comanche life centered on two activities---hunting and war. Hunters stalked bear, elk, antelope, and buffalo. A buffalo hunt was an important event involving most of the group. Working under an elected leader, hunters on horses surrounded the buffalo and forced the herd to move in a circle. Then the hunters, armed with bows and arrows and spears, made the kill as the buffalo passed. After a successful hunt, the Comanche’s ate some of the meat and always dried and saved the rest for another time.

From the early 1700s until the late 1800s, the Comanche’s lived on the prairies, plateaus, and plains of western Texas. Their territory, the Comancheria, was a vast land. It covered parts of Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico.

The Comanche’s were divided into many groups, with each group having its own leaders and a council of older men who made important decisions. No leader or council of one group could make a decision or reach an agreement for the members of another group. No person or group council had the right to speak for all the Comanche people.

Because Apaches, Wichitas, Tonkawas, and white settlers threatened from all sides, the Comanche’s fought fiercely to keep control of the Comancheria. This territory grew gradually in size, until most of the lands that had once belonged to the Apaches were now controlled by the Comanche’s. In this vast territory, the Comanche’s could live according to their customs and traditions, hunting buffalo, foraging for fruits, berries, and nuts, and finding shelter in the steep canyon walls. In addition, Comanche warriors often fought to take their enemies horses. Although the Comanche’s gathered some wild mustangs from the plentiful herds on the southern plains, they especially prized horses taken from their enemies.

Answer the following questions:

1. Who did the Comanche's share the Texas plains with?

2. How fast could the Kiowa's pack up their tepees?

3. What did the Kiowa's use the buffalo for?

4. Why did the Kiowa's worship the sun?

The Native American influence lived on after the people moved to reservations. When immigrants from Mexico settled in Texas, there were familiar with some Native American customs. Some of these settlers intermarried with the Native American and adopted some of their ways of life. With the coming of the Europeans, however, traditional Native American cultures began to disappear.