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Also lived in Caddo-like houses but covered with skins rather than thatch; cross between tipi & caddo house
- Also similar to Caddo, lots of tattoos and paint; man's facial paint considered
private property and could not be copied; women painted black stripes on mouth, nose, back and around nipples
- But in general, lifestyle of the plains
- Clan most important unit of society
- Limited, if any, agriculture
- Hunted, fished, gathering, nomadic
- Known as fast runners although small in stature
- Little clothing beyond breechclout; women short skirt
- Hair long, loose or braided with lots of ornaments, earrings, feathers,
necklaces of shell, bone
- Dog important
- Food - bison, deer, rattlesnake a delicacy, fish, oysters
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Made pemmican, sausage-like, and jerk
- Taboo on eating/killing wolves and coyotes
- Used bow and arrow, lances, poison arrows (mistletoe juice which
they continued to use on guns)
Matrilineal; isolation during menstruation, childbirth similar to Caddo
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before child born, father not supposed to touch any bird, nor break bones of animals for marrow or child would
have weak legs
No knowledge of marriage rituals
Information on spiritual lives also sparse
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Death: immediate burial of dead unless important person; gifts in grave;
three day mourning with prolonged wailing but no singing; a mother might slash her breasts;
taboo on using name of deceased - spirit would be disturbed; on fourth day, smoking ceremony
- Then spirits journey home; believed was west; corpse placed with head west
- Believed women went directly west, singing as they went
- Men might hang around watching, calling to relatives
- Believed haunting if improper burial by owls and wolves
- Wore medicine bag to war off illness
- Ritual consumption of enemy flesh
Very social; settlers complained that they showed up at social affairs uninvited;
invited missions to settle near for protection
But, actually unsure when arrived in Texas
Similar with most famous Plains peoples of Texas - Comanche and Kiowa as well as the Apache
The classic Plains Culture did not develop until the horse and gun arrived - a topic we will return to later
To Our Next Class Discussion: The Peoples of the Rio Grande Region of Texas
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