The Importance of Horses and Buffalo to the Sioux

What Buffalo was used for
Buffalo had many uses for the Sioux Indians. Buffalo was probably, besides the horse, the most important animal to this culture. I mean, it was worshiped! The main use was that it provided meat. Meat provided protein, which is essential to any human being. The meat was also dried, so that it could be kept during long periods of time. Another important use was that the buffalos’ hide would be used as a robe. A robe was used to keep warm, sleep with, and to do artwork with. It was especially important during the winter, where it could get freezing cold. Hide could be also used as a suitcase, in which to carry belongings for hunting trips or wars. Of course, they were also used for straight-out trips. Sometimes, the buffalos’ hooves were boiled to make glue! They used glue for many things, but especially art. One of the most interesting, and smartest things they used the buffalo for, was to use its’ bladder to carry food and water! I mean, a bladder is waterproof, and perfect to hold water. Of course, if it’s clean! I would personally hate people taking my bladder out.

Fur Trade
When the white colonists had built big cities, and had been trading with the Indians for many years, the Indians started to trade buffalo hides. There were many different types and qualities of buffalo hide. The thing about buffalo, though, was that it didn’t provide fine furs, but its hides were very warm. Because they were so warm, many people bought them for the winter months. The lowest quality hides were shipped in bales, in which they were easy to transport but less taken care of. These hides were cheap and were often sold worldwide. These hides were also used to make belts, because it wouldn’t tear under strain. These belts were widely popular. One thing these hides weren’t good for was shoes. They were way too tough to make shoes out of. No one would buy them, anyway. Some of the finer hides were used as robes on carriages. These hides were hairier and softer. The most expensive hides were decorated with art. They were decorated with things like quills, beadwork, or paint. It is a shame that today buffalo is extinct.


Hunting the Buffalo
Because buffalo are so skittish, the Sioux hunters had many strategies on how to hunt them. One of the most original and easiest methods to hunt buffalo was on foot. You could hide behind trees or bushes, and quietly hunt buffalo. One disadvantage is that this is slow and non-efficient. In earlier years, hunters were armed with spears, bows and arrows. But as trade grew, they started to hunt with rifles. The hunters would disguise themselves in wolf skin, which turned out to be very effective. They would try to ambush the herds near drop-offs, so they could get an easy kill. If the Indians were hunting with horses, they would circle the herd, chant, and shoot. The Indians were so accurate, that they could shoot right through the buffalo. Because buffalo was so heavy, they had to figure a way to not only catch them, but to be able to bring them home. They would bring two horses- one for chasing the buffalo, and a strong horse to carry the buffalo home. As soon as the Sioux saw buffalo, they’d jump of the strong horse onto the fast horse. They would then chase the buffalo until it tired out. Once they killed the buffalo, they would use the strong horse to carry it home. The Sioux were very skilled huntsmen- colonists would actually use the Sioux methods of hunting to hunt buffalo as well! That goes to prove that the Sioux are the toughest Indians in South Dakota.

The Impact of the Horse
Today, we can see that horses greatly shaped the Sioux Indians. However, no one knows how the Sioux acquired these great animals. Some historians believe that Hernando Cortez brought horses to North America, but still no one knows for certain how some actually became in the possession of these Native Americans. After a long period of time owning horses, the Sioux Indians had bred enough herds of horses for everyone to ride. By this, I mean men, women, slaves and even little children. Before the Sioux had all these horses, they had a harder time hunting buffalo. But once they did, it greatly increased their mobility. It also allowed the Indians to hunt more buffalo, faster. Horses were important for hunting, but they also increased mobility in other ways, such as being able to pull goods for long distances, which in the long run helped with trade. Originally, before the Sioux could hunt more buffalo, they had less dried meat, which affected the amount of food they had that lasted a long time, and didn’t need to be tossed after a few days. Of course, once they acquired horses, dried meat was plentiful. Horses affected their culture as well. Wealth was measured in terms of horses. The more horse you had, the more “money” they had. Horses also affected religion. The Indians worshiped buffalo more, since it was now their main food source. Imagine what the Sioux Indians would be like today without horses.

Horses and Power
Horses were a great symbol of power for the Sioux Indians. During the timeframe when the Sioux had horses, the Sioux started to push other tribes out of South Dakota and the surrounding areas. Because of this, many horse-warrior legends were made, although many are unknown. When the Sioux were taking over South Dakota, they were pushing tribes like the Cheyenne into Montana. This was done easily because the Sioux had more horses than the other tribes. The main reason why these Indians were doing this was to get more hunting grounds and grasses for their animals. The Cheyenne warriors tried very hard to stop the Sioux, but with fewer horses, they failed. Smaller tribes joined the Cheyenne, but with no success. Eventually, only the Cheyenne warriors allied with the Sioux to take control of the surrounding areas. Just like the saying, if you can’t beat them, join them! This continued for many years. Ironically, while other tribes were getting fewer horses, the Sioux just kept breading more and more. The other tribes’ horses were either being captured or killed. This conquest was considered the greatest Indian march of conquest In U.S. history! The Sioux Indians are now considered one of the most power hungry tribes ever!

2100 continued...

On the edge of the city, there was this boy called Timmy. He lived near the river, in a little shack covered in rotting moss. He lived with his mom, and he often would go fish by the river. Not today. Today, they were packing up. Timmy did not know although he heard his mom say" they're coming to take the house." He didn't know why they would, but if he wasn't only eight years old, he would understand that the new government had more taxes, and that paying them was extremely hard. So, they packed everything they had, which wasn't much, but was very valuable to the small family. They took their old bikes, and followed the river until they came to a motel. The mother paid for a room, and they entered a small apartment, where they went to sleep...

Meanwhile, Anfernee was telling Jack about having cramps. How could this be? They talked about it, and when Anfernee arrived at his house, he was going to tell his family what had happened. When he got inside, he found his family, which included his mom, dad and little sister. What he saw though, made him realize that his cramps weren't normal..

2100 continued..

Anfernee was walking down the street. He was talking to his best friend, Jack, about how fun they had that day. They enjoyed talking about how they made fun of the government, how they did a project on saving the bees, and their lives in general. Everyday this happened, they would wake up, go to school and come home. Nothing ever changed. But today was different. Anfernee had stomach pains. But how could this happen? Nobody ever got sick. Not in the confederacy, anyway.

Mt. Pilchuck Video

Juan Ponce De Leon Claymation

Claymation is using clay for animation. Movie Companies often use Claymation to create series, like the show Wallace and Grommet. Daniel, Couran and I used claymation to create a humorous documentary on the explorer Juan Ponce De Leon, which we recently completed in first quarter. Come visit into our story as I explain the production of the Claymation, and the fun, difficult and learning experiences of the production.

Making clay objects move is obviously fun. Why wouldn’t it be? But I would personally have to say that the making of the audio was the funnest part, which ironically, we had the least amount of time to do. The reason why it was fun was because I like to give objects “life”. Having just balls of clay moving around can be boring. Having music gives it suspense and gets you excited, and having voices tells the mood of the character, and tells you what kind of a person that little ball of clay is. We also tried to add humor in the voices, by saying either stupid or funny things.

Probably the most difficult or otherwise boring part of the project was at the beginning, when we were making the clay figures. It seemed really hard to make clothes for the figures. Also, our clay wasn’t very good, because it would never stick. Even after we made the basic shape of the people, we had trouble creating faces and bodily features. It was very time consuming. Once we got the figures done, they would still fall apart easily, causing more discomfort. We eventually finished.

Over the course of the project, I had many tidbits that I learned. The most important thing that I learned was to anchor our camera. As you can tell, the beginning of the video is very jumpy, and the animation doesn’t look good at all. Over time, we anchored our camera, and the quality greatly improved. I still think that we could have done better in some areas. That is not to say that it’s a bad movie, because I’m very happy with it. I’ll just make sure to keep the camera still for further Claymations, and to also take more pictures.

Claymation can be the easiest type of animation, and at the same time be the hardest and most time consuming. I had fun working with my partners, and I learned a lot by doing this project. I hope to experiment with maybe legos and fingers for future animations.

Washington Coast Trip

There we were, driving in a bus, down to the Washington coast. We had just gotten off the Kingston Ferry, and we were going through Port Townsend. We would have gotten to the beach earlier, and maybe even started hiking, if there hadn’t been fog on that chilly afternoon. We arrived there soon enough, and I soon realized that this was going to be an informative, fun and difficult trip.

A day had passed. We had been hiking during the night for four miles, and I was ready to see the rocks that I was walking on. We soon started hiking, and it was already a lot easier. I was having a good time when we stated climbing the overland routes, because it was fun to take a break from climbing rocks, and I got to see the entire beach. What was really fun, was when we got to our destination. It was called Cedar Creek, and it was a small river flowing out into the ocean. I suspected that it was glacier water, because it was cold! After skipping a few rocks and going out into the ocean, I went wading into the creek. I was sure that the iodine water was going to be cool and refreshing. Some people actually went diving into the water!

When we had been hiking for a few days, I soon realized that this trip was not going to be easy. We had hiked an average of five miles a day, which wouldn’t be so bad if we didn’t have to carry everything we needed to survive on our packs. The most difficult part of the trip was the third day, when we hiked six miles on rocky beach. It also started raining when we were setting up our tents up on a cliff. During the hike, my shoulders started to get sore, so I was having a hard time. I kept up, but I hard to push myself. When we finally arrived at camp, we made a fire, just before the heavy rains came. I kept dry in that fire for most of the afternoon. Steam was actually coming off me! When we had to go to bed, the trail leading up to our campsite was all muddy, and hard to walk on, during a steep incline. But, I sure was glad when I went to bed!

Learning is always a basis of any trip. I learned a lot on that five day hike, which will probably help me on the California trip. I learned about sea life, how to prepare freeze dried meals, and among other things, how to cook oysters. But probably the most important thing I realized is how important it is to be responsible. If I just went on that trip unprepared, and to just mess around, I wouldn’t have had a very good time on the trip. I have heard of someone who went alone, and ended up dying! And she was probably very prepared anyway! So, it is defiantly important to be responsible on those kinds of trips.

The Washington Coast hike has given me long lasting memories. On the first night, I got soaking wet after falling into a waist-deep puddle. I learned how to skip rocks. I used iodine tablets for the first time. So, this was obviously an interesting trip. I hope that someday, I can experience another trip as fun, difficult, informative and fulfilling as the Washington Coast.

In the year 2100

It is the year 2100. It is very cloudy. Sometimes, it is really hot, and sometimes it is really cold. The sky is really dark- the only thing is, is that its midday. Plus, it’s in the middle of July! In California, no less. And those clouds aren’t rain clouds. No one knows what they really are, especially Anfernee Calastor. He was 15, and people his age usually know about these things, but he did not. Not for the past few months, anyway. He didn’t go to school; he didn’t go to his friends’ houses. In fact, he didn’t even have any friends. Even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to invite them over. He would have loved to, but the fact is,

he has no home…

To be continued.....

My Ideal School

My ideal school would be in a mountain. You would have to take an elevator up to the school, as well as on the way down. The school would be camouflaged within the mountain, with only a few windows visible. Inside, it would be polished rock, which would coat an interior gym, fountain, cafeteria and classes. The chalkboards would be made of natural chalk from the mountain, and there would be skylights in the classrooms for the claustrophobic. To play outside, there would be an opening, like a big crater, which would have open fields of grass, places to walk around, tunnels, benches, and a big view of the sky. It would be easy to play games at other schools, because we’d be practicing in thinner air. It would also never rain, never be cold, and the school would have the greatest amount of students in the country. Most importantly, for graduating students, you’d be able to parachute to the town below on graduating day. While flying down, you would be able to see the fresh fruit trees on campus, and even be able to eat from it while climbing up, on camp outs.

This would defiantly be my favorite school.

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