Plain Indians collected food in four main ways:
Hunting/Fishing
Plain Indians more commonly hunted big game, than they fished. Buffalo were their main source of big game, as it was abundant in their area. Buffalo were fierce creatures, so the tribes would have to use many different techniques to capture and kill the animals.
Gathering
Gathering means to collect food from the environment around you. Plain Indians would gather everything from vegetables to fruits. This was less common due to the difficulty of finding the food, and the chance it was inedible, or worse, poisonous.
Farming
Farming was a viable and very common source for food. Native Americans had 3 main types of food they would collect:
Pumpkins were also grown sometimes too. Plain Indians even built a basic economy with food too. They would trade different crops between tribes in place for more food or other resources.
Raising Animals
This was the least common source of food for Plain Indians. At the time, there were few domesticated animals for Native Americans to raise. As a result, they more commonly followed herds of wild animals like buffalo instead. This caused them to be a nomadic type of people.
Hunting/Fishing
Plain Indians more commonly hunted big game, than they fished. Buffalo were their main source of big game, as it was abundant in their area. Buffalo were fierce creatures, so the tribes would have to use many different techniques to capture and kill the animals.
- Setting traps for deer and rabbit was an easy source of food requiring little maintenance.
- Driving big game like buffalo over large pits of cliffs and then pushing them off, was one of the ways they dealt with game much larger than themselves.
- Fishing nets could be used to catch fish, or manual fishing from canoes was also common.
Gathering
Gathering means to collect food from the environment around you. Plain Indians would gather everything from vegetables to fruits. This was less common due to the difficulty of finding the food, and the chance it was inedible, or worse, poisonous.
Farming
Farming was a viable and very common source for food. Native Americans had 3 main types of food they would collect:
- Maize (Corn)
- Squash
- Beans
Pumpkins were also grown sometimes too. Plain Indians even built a basic economy with food too. They would trade different crops between tribes in place for more food or other resources.
Raising Animals
This was the least common source of food for Plain Indians. At the time, there were few domesticated animals for Native Americans to raise. As a result, they more commonly followed herds of wild animals like buffalo instead. This caused them to be a nomadic type of people.