The SiouxGrace smithThe Sioux

of the Great Plains

The Great Plains…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..2

Sioux Homes……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Sioux Food……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4

Sioux Clothes………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……5

Sioux Crafts……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…6

Glossary………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………7

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Table of Contents

The Great Plains The Great Plains spreads around South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and more. The land has vast grasslands. The temperature is so hot and dry it stings your eyes in the summer. In North Dakota it gets very, very cold in the Winter. The Rocky Mountains border The Great Plains. The Great Plains also hold the Minnesota river. Our tribe the Sioux lived there.

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The land has vast grasslands and large hills.

Sioux Homes The Sioux lived in buildings called tipis made out of Buffalo hide. The tipis are tall structures made out of buffalo hide and long poles. The Sioux set fires in the tipis. The tipis had flaps at the top to let out all of the smoke from the fires out. A small family had a small one room tipi. The Sioux painted their tipis. The tipis could be set up and taken down in minutes. (This was one of the woman's many jobs. They had tipis because they had to follow the buffalo around the plains to get food to eat. )

3A tepee is made out of buffalo hide.

Sioux Food Most of the food that the Sioux tribe ate was buffalo. They ate buffalo boiled, broiled, dried, sometimes raw and sometimes they ate the fat. The other meat they ate was Bear, deer, antelope, turkey and prairie chicken. The fruit and vegetables that they ate were cherries, berries, plums, potatoes, spinach and prairie turnips. They also ate quail, raccoons and skunks. They also used buffalo bones for tools and the sinew for thread.

4When there was buffalo everything was used.

Sioux Clothes The Sioux boys wore dear skin shirts and leggings. Girls wore long dresses and leggings. They were mostly made out animal skins. The girls dresses were often beaded. The moccasins were always beaded. The chiefs wore feathered headdresses. The Sioux decorated their clothes for special occasions with elk teeth, bear claws, feathers, and furl.

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The chiefs wore headdresses that were mostly made out of feathers and beads.

Sioux Crafts The Sioux women used porcupine quills and beads to decorate clothing and bags. The children made leather dolls for toys. The babies in the Sioux tribe got beaded rattles as toys. Toys and tools were often made from bones of buffalo. A special needle called an awl was sometimes made of buffalo bone. Some bones made good painting sticks. Buffalo sinew was used as thread. Spoons and cups were sometimes made out of buffalo horns. Fine pots were often made out of buffalo stomach cleaned out. The pots could carry food and water.

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These are some Sioux rattles.

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Temperature: The degree of heat or cold in something usually measured by a thermometer.

Poles : A long smooth piece of wood, metal, or plastic, as in a telephone pole.

Sinew : a strong fiber or band of tissue that connects a muscle to a bone.

Headdress : A covering often decorative for the head.

Rattles: A baby’s toy that makes a rattling sound.

Glossery