Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future

The Great Plains Indians April 9, 2025

The storied life of the Great Plains Indian nations is filled with contradictions.  In the imagination of today it is easy to imagine the unsullied and pristine life of the nomadic Plains tribe, following the buffalo and secure in the vastness of their isolated terrain.  Our minds eye is shaped as much by Hollywood as by history if not more so.  The reality is that without the influence of the white man the life of the Great Plains tribes never would have existed at all.  Their nomadic life was dependent upon the vast buffalo herds from which they derived every essential of life from clothes to food to fuel for their fires.  Yet their ability to follow the herds and to efficiently hunt them depended upon the horse and the horse was introduced into North America by the Spaniards.

The French were convinced that they were almost across the continent and that just a little way further on they would find the Pacific and the long-sought way to China.  Because of this they continued to try and beat the British to the west following the trading paths with their various allies ever deeper into the northern plains. 

Along the way they made the same type of mistake they had made in the east.  Just as they had allowed an alliance with the Huron to drag them into perpetual war with the five nations, so they allowed their alliance with the Cree to lead them into a war of revenge with the Lakota.  Their tactic of greater involvement in Indian affairs here proved to be a major weakness when compared to the strength gained by the British and their system of waiting for the Indians to come to them.

From America: Volume One: Colonial History available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.