How did the great plains meet their basic needs?

Answer 1

Prior to the arrival of the horse in Native culture, Native Americans could not live on the open plains. Good water was too widely spread apart, and Natives on foot dimly could not keep up with the migrations of the Buffalo that dominated the plains.

As a result, in pre-horse days, Native tribes tended to live in the broken lands and major river valleys that surrounded the great plains... and they would only hunt Buffalo seasonally when the massive herds passed close to their territories. They would then hunt by going out in large groups to herd and stampede whole groups of buffalo into river, or off steep cliffs.

This dynamic is partly how the Buffalo came to be such a massive monoculture in the great plains area, since other forms of wildlife that did not live on the plains was pretty effectively hunted by Native tribes.

By the time the Natives Americans got hold of the horse... the buffalo were the largest source of meat and hides in all of north America, and suddenly, native tribes could travel fast enough to move from water to water, and follow the movements of herds.

The result was a sudden explosion in tribal numbers on the great plains and considerable competition among tribes on the plains.

It also resulted in the decimation of the buffalo herds.

While the White culture is often condemned for nearly eradicating the buffalo herds in a very short period of time, and it is true that white encroachment vastly accelerated the demise of the vast herds... it is also true that in the 200 years prior to that time that Native Americans, themselves, were making a significant impact on the numbers of the buffalos even before the whites got there.

Prior to the horse the buffalo ranged pretty freely across most of the plain with very little effective predation.

After the horse, the Native tribes became considerably more efficient at hunting them.

North American Paleontology clearly shows that all sorts of large mammals went extinct in the centuries immediately following the arrival of the first human beings.

Native Americans did not, as witnessed by the Anasazi, live in 'harmony with nature.

Like all human populations they did precisely as much damage as their technology allowed... their technology was simply very limited.