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The horse, brought to the New World by Spaniards, began to transform life
on the southern plains in the late 17th century. By the early 1800s most
of the tribes of the northern plains, including the Cheyennes, who gave up
riverside farming, and the Blackfeet, had turned to a new life of highly
efficient horseback hunting.
Most tribes enforced strict hunting laws designed to keep the great bison herds intact and the supply of food, clothing, and shelter constant. Though this culture in its classic form flourished for less than a century, the Plains horseman endures as the stereotype of the North American Indian. Recommended Reading |