For the Plains Indians, the period from 1750 to 1890, often 
referred to as the traditional period, was an evolutionary 
time. Horses and firearms, trade goods, shifting migration 
patterns, disease pandemics, and other events associated with 
extensive European contact led to a peak of Plains Indian 
influence and success in the early nineteenth century. 
Ironically, that same European contact ultimately led to the 
devolution of traditional Plains Indian society, and by 1870 
most Plains Indian peoples were living on reservations.


 In The Plains Indians, Paul H. Carlson charts the 
evolution and growth of the Plains Indians through this period 
of constant change. Carlson examines, among other aspects of 
these tribal groups, the horse and bison culture, the economy 
and material culture, trade and diplomacy, and reservation life. 
In its examination of cultural change, The Plains Indians 
relies heavily on Indian voices and stresses an Indian 
viewpoint.


Carlson argues that the Plains Indians were neither passive 
recipients of these cultural changes nor helpless victims. They 
took what was new and adapted it to and integrated it into their 
own culture. Even when faced with a significantly altered life 
on the reservations, the Plains Indians, "without abandoning 
their cultural base[,] . . . adopted sedentary lifeways and 
shifted toward new life patterns, new sodalities, and different 
characteristics of community."


Carlson also investigates the role of the environment in the 
lives of the Plains tribal groups. The ecological exploitation 
of bison was an integral part of their society; both their 
material and spiritual worlds depended on bison. The Plains 
Indians, while not living in perfect harmony with the 
environment, to some extent adjusted their hunting practices, 
religious ceremonies, and social organization to the seasons, 
the bison, and other environmental factors, such as the 
herding requirements of their horses.


The Plains Indians is a clear, well-written narrative 
history of the Plains Indians during a vital and well-known 
era in Indian and American history. Those interested in Indian 
anthropology and history will value this cohesive overview of 
Plains Indian society and culture.




PAUL H. CARLSON is professor of history at Texas Tech 
University. He has written numerous articles on frontier history 
and Texas history and is the author of five previous books, 
including Empire Builder in the Texas Panhandle: William 
Henry Bush and "Pecos Bill": A Military Biography of 
William R. Shafter.



What people are saying about this book

"For college students and other with little understanding of the 
subject, The Plains Indians would be an ideal introduction."
—Kansas History, Summer 1999