Native Americans of the Plateau Region

The plateau area runs from just above the Canadian border into the American Southwest. Some of the larger tribes that lived in this region were the Spokane, Nez Pierce, and Shoshone. The area where these tribes dwelled was not very hospitable, so they spent a lot of their time simply trying to eke out a living. The land wasn’t very plentiful. I mean, there was enough for them to find to be able to survive, but it wasn’t just super plentiful.

They didn’t have an ocean close by where they could practice fishing. They didn’t have areas where they could grow a lot of crops, so they had to work really hard to survive compared to some of the tribes that lived in different regions. The tribes in the south part of the plateau gathered fruits and nuts and hunted small animals. They didn’t have a lot of big animals that could survive in their area. People in the south were going to put small animals and they would be gathering food, such as fruits and nuts.

The tribes in the north did have some rivers near them, so they fished for salmon and they gathered roots and berries. They didn’t have as much growing above ground, but they could dig up edible roots, eat those, gather some berries, and they were able to fish for salmon because they did live near some waterways, even if they weren’t near a coastline of an ocean where there was more plentiful food. Later on, these tribes would begin to hunt buffalo.

They would need to master the use of the horse to be able to travel further, to be able to reach buffalo, but eventually they would also hunt buffalo. Now, many of the northern tribes had permanent winter villages. Because they were hunting and gathering for a lot of the year whenever it was really cold and there wasn’t a lot to hunt or gather, they had these permanent winter villages that they could gather in and with their food stores, most of which were along waterways.

They did set these up along waterways where they’d be easier to get to, easier to get to fresh water, easier or to try to find game if there was anything available, because the game would also need a way to get fresh water. They borrowed the architecture of the tepee from the Plains Indians. Some of their lodges were modeled after tepees, though some tribes had longhouses covered with bark.

These would have been a longer kind of tunnel-shaped rectangle where there would be a long hallway in the middle with rooms on either side that had sleeping bunks attached to the walls. Now, many of the winter homes consisted of a pit a few feet into the ground with a framework of poles over it that met in a peak. They would dig a few feet into the ground and then build up poles over it, cover those with bark or animal skins, cover it with different things to keep the rain and snow out, and the people piled earth around and partially over these lodges to help insulate them against the cold.

They would dig their pit, they would build up a framework, they would pile animal skins, bark, different plant materials over to help keep different weather out, and they would also pile some earth up over that, at least an extent of the way up, to further insulate them against the cold. These large lodges often served as communal winter homes for several families each. Some of them may have been longhouse-style, so they would still be a long almost rectangular pit that was dug with the framework over it and then earth piled up.

There could still be rooms off to either side. Some may have been more of a teepee-style pit where was just one dome at the top that was piled up and maybe only one family would live in those smaller ones. This was a way that the northern people found to combat the harsh temperatures up there. They were able to insulate themselves against the cold and have these permanent winter villages that they could just patch up each year instead of having to rebuild or dig from scratch.

Now, after the plateau tribes were introduced to the horse, their lifestyles changed dramatically. Remember, we talked about how they could hunt buffalo once they were able to travel by horse and use the horse to help herd the buffalo. They began to trade with traps from further away, such as the plains tribes (those who lived in the plains region). They could travel far away to trade instead of only trading with those people that they crossed during their hunting and gathering time of the year.

Groups of hunters were now able to travel far away to hunt bison, elk, and deer, as well as buffalo. When they could travel further away, they could find buffalo herds. They could follow them, and they could, once they hunted, be able to bring meat back because they had both a way to travel and a way to transport with the use of the horse. The plateau tribes were very skilled at weaving baskets and using similar materials that they would use to make those baskets to create hats, bedding, nets, and cord.

These are some of the things that they would have been creating for themselves, as well as to trade. Baskets that were woven in an intricate pattern that were both useful and had a nice design, hats, bedding, nets, and cord of the same variety, though the nets and cords would be more valued for being strong. If you were in an area where there was a waterway and you could fish, those nets would be highly valuable. They were able to trade these items, as well as use them.

Once they had the horse, they were able to trade even further away and get different goods from different tribes. The larger tribes in the plateau region were the Spokane, Nez Pierce, and Shoshone. They lived in the area from right above the Canadian border into the American Southwest.