How did plains Indians get tobacco?

Answer 1

None of the Plains tribes grew any kind of crops, since they lived nomadic lifestyles and were never in the same place long enough. Tobacco for smoking was either obtained through trade, either direct from white traders or through other tribes who got it from the whites, or they used native "tobacco" consisting mainly of red willow bark mixed with other local dried plants.

In fact, some Virginia tobacco was reaching the Plains tribes before the first white people arrived on the Plains, via other native tribes.

The native "tobacco" was (and still is) usually known as "kinnikinnick", a Delaware term meaning "mixed"; its exact composition depended on locally available plants and tree bark, but in general the bearberry plant, red osier dogwood, cornel wood, bunchberry plant, sumac, arrowroot, laurel, cherry bark, black birch and willow bark would be dried and used for a smoking mixture.

The only exception among the Plains tribes were the Crows, who grew a specific type of nicotiana (tobacco) plant during elaborate annual religious ceremonies - but this was never used for smoking. Its flowers resembled stars and the plant was credited with celestial and spiritual powers, so it was considered far too sacred to smoke in pipes.