Webblog

After skimming my way through Webb’s chapter on the physical basis of the Great Plains, I found the chapter on the Plains Indians. This caught my attention right away because I am part Apache and Comanche. I get a lot of my traits from their heritage including my temper and natural ability to ride a horse. I loved how Webb describes them as being clumsy and ugly on foot, but once they get on the back of a horse they become graceful and beautiful. My mom’s side of the family, where I get the Indian from, has this uncanny ability to ride and we owe it a lot to our heritage. Looking at me I’m obviously a redhead and have no resemblance to Native Americans but my great uncle and his family were the ones to get the dark skin and dark hair. In this chapter I found a big supporting factor the Webb’s idea of the people adapting to their surroundings. The Indians utilized everything the land gave them from animals to shelter. They made natural things, using every part of an animal that was killed to the greens and fruits the land gave them. They were expert farmers in their own regions and new the land better than anyone else. They utilized the natural vegetation during war and theft. The Indians were expert warriors and we come to find later in the book that they could not be beaten until the invention of the six shooter. It’s somewhat unfortunate that it had to be like that. When we came here it was completely new to us, and they had hundreds of years of knowledge. The plains could have been settled faster with their knowledge of the plains. The Indians could build stable shelter on the plains and survive the winters. But being the dominant egotistical culture we are, we had to take over and make things work for us rather than work with the land. If it didn’t suit we moved on. Webb brings up some other aspects of the plains like; the search for water, the cattle age, and the new American approach to the plains. They are all good chapters but none got to me as much as the Plains Indians. They were masters of the land and preserved what they didn’t need. They never killed too many animals or used more resources than they needed. It’s a shame we didn’t learn more from them. The Indians are the perfect example of adaptation. “I am most ready, without hesitation, to pronounce the Comanchees the most extraordinary horseman that I have seen yet in all my travels, and doubt very much whether any people in the world can surpass them.” George Catlin