Geography
The Plains cultural area is a vast territory that extends from southern Manitoba and the Mississippi River westward to the Rocky Mountains, and from the North Saskatchewan River south into Texas. The Plains cultural area has a continental climate — hot and dry summers and very cold winters. High grass covers the rolling prairies in the east; short grasses, sage and cacti the arid high plains to the west. Flat land and rolling hills extend in all directions.
Language
In the Plains cultural regions, significant amounts of people are fluent in Blackfoot, Ojibwa, and Cree.
Suggestions for your class:
Although Ojibwe is quite hard to learn, try and see with your class if you can pick up any words from Darren in the following video.
Although Ojibwe is quite hard to learn, try and see with your class if you can pick up any words from Darren in the following video.
Stories
Suggestions for your class:
There are many stories that are set in the Plains cultural area. All of these suggested books are written by Paul Goble who is an award winning author. Although based in the UK, he wrote a lot about the Plains Indigenous peoples in North America because he appreciated their culture and found people to look at them as "foreign."
Art
Most art produced by people living in the Plains was two dimensional and painting on hides (such as tipis) was the major genre. Their personal belongings like deer hide moccasins, jackets, dresses, leggings and shirts were embellished with porcupine quill work and beads.