The Plains Indians

What were the plains and who lived there? By Derek

The plains of Canada are located in provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The western end of the plains end at the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. On the east the great plains stretch out to the Canadian Shield in Manitoba. They are only in the south end of the provinces, and they stretch down all the way through the United States until about Texas.

There are many different tribes of the plains Indians. Here is a list of most of them. (Note: this includes the American tribes as well) Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboin, Bannock, Blackfeet, Blood, Cheyenne, Plains Cree, Crow, Gros Ventre, Hidatsa, Kiowa, Mandans, Ojibway, Omaha, Ponca, Sarsi, Shoshone and the Sioux. A lot of the time all of these tribes were at war with each other.

The Indians were the people who have lived in Canada the longest. It is not known how long they have lived on the land. They have probably been here since the beginning of humans. The Europeans did not make it to Canada until about the fourteen hundreds. Now some people say things like Christopher Columbus discovered North America, when really, Canada was no big secret. The plains Indians have lived there forever.

These Indians were a vital part in the history of Canada. They were the supplier of the fur trade. The fur trade was when the Europeans came to Canada traded goods like beer, pots and pans, and guns, for Fur pelts that the Indians hunted.

To find out a lot more about the fur trade from both sides, check out these pages.

Here is Jared's page on France in the fur trade

Here is Brody's page on the fur trade

Here is Richards page on the Natives in the fur trade

Click here to see the page that I made on the two questions; How did the plain Indians acquire the horse? What importance did it have?

Click to see another page I made on the question; How were the buffalo a major part of the Indians lives?

The book were I got most of my info from was called "Forging The Prairie West" By John Herd Thompson, and published by Oxford