Britannica
Sources used in this answer
- Native American - Plains Woodland and Plains Village cultures
- Oceti Sakowin - Precontact way of life and culture
- Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains - Plains life after the horse
- Cheyenne
- Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains
- Arapaho
- 10 Fascinating Facts About the First Americans
- Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains - Intercultural contact
- Native American - The Plains
Which peoples moved from the Northeast to the Great Plains after European colonization began?
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Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains
Dancers at the Totah Festival Powwow performing the Northern Tradition dance, a dance inspired by Plains traditions, on September 1, 2007, in Farmington, New Mexico.
Following the onset of European colonization in North America, the resulting displacement of Indigenous communities created a "domino effect" that caused many groups in the Northeast to shift westward toward the Great Plains.1
As these communities fled the destruction and epidemic diseases brought by colonizers, several groups resettled in the Plains region. These include:
- Oceti Sakowin (including the Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota)21
- Cheyenne21
- Arapaho3
- Iowa1
- Oto1
- Missouria1
- Saulteaux1
Many of these peoples, such as the Arapaho and Cheyenne, had originally lived in the Eastern Woodlands, where they practiced agriculture and maintained permanent villages. Upon moving to the Plains, they increasingly adopted an equestrian, nomadic lifestyle centered on buffalo hunting, often abandoning their traditional farming practices in the process.432