Westward Expansion: Life as a Plains Indian | Teen Ink

Westward Expansion: Life as a Plains Indian

December 11, 2017
By colesiep GOLD, Hartland, Wisconsin
colesiep GOLD, Hartland, Wisconsin
13 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Bison Hunt


A massive beast strolls through the plains,
trotting the prairie grass unknowing of the fight ahead.
Indians gallop in with spears and arrows.
They wrestle the bison to the ground with ferocity,  fear, fire inside of them.
Getting the kill is key to survival.
Tribes live off the skillful bison hunt,
the heartbeat of Indian culture.

White Movement


Suddenly, the plains crowd as
white men poison the land.
The open plains no longer look open as
miners and traders come looking to get rich.
The land bison roam become limited.
Tribes have to learn to live off the land without bison,
the heartbeat of Indian culture.

The Decline


Forced to trade with whites, tribes struggle to feed their people.
Railroads and developments consume the land tribes fought to keep.
With no way to adjust to this new world, the bison population diminishes.
Hunting allowed the tribes survival, like their ancestors.
Soon after the white movement, Indians went to hunt in what's left of the open plains.
In sadness, tribes struggled to survive, knowing that their fate is the same as the dying bison. The heartbeat of Indian culture.



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