The Sioux
by Cristen
Five Free Wild Horses
     My mom went to get dad who was hunting in a storm because we didn't have much food to eat.  Suddenly mom felt pain and luckily found dad and said "Come quickly!"  I was one month old in May when my mom put me into a sled and hitched the sled to five free wild horses and I took off.  Two years later the horses and I came back and I was ok.  I was two years old.  So my mom decided to call me Five Free Wild Horses and my dad agreed too.  So the five horses and I took off once more forever.  Eight years later, the horses came back and I was still ok and my mom said "Go," "Go back and live there for as long as you want.  But when you are 11 years old you have to come home."  "Goodbye."  "Gaaa," I said and off I went.
The Life in the Plains
     One day a herd of buffalo and deer was munching on the tall summer buffalo grass.  Next a herd of horses galloped to the Big Horn River to have a drink with the buffalo and deer.  In the Black Hills some bison and elk were roaming around.  Also in the Plains region robins, crows, and eagles were swooping and soaring through the sky.  The porcupine's quills were shooting at the bobcats because they were attacking the porcupines.  The beavers were swimming in the Missouri River building a dam.  In Mount Rushmore the scarlet globemallow grass is tall as tall can be.  The little bluestem grass is greener than ever before.  Near the 1000 rivers and creeks there stood two antelope drinking out of one.  On the highest point of the Rocky Mountains the gold eagles soared through the sky calling to the coyote.  The prairie dogs are chasing the wild turkeys.  It was a hot sunny day but a little windy.  The mice were getting ready for the strong winds and the winter.  In the summer the western plains are drier than the eastern prairies for the quails and even the rattlesnakes.  The gophers are popping up and trying to get something for food.  The flat prairie region is covered with jackrabbits and weasels are drinking from one of the 250 natural lakes.  By the Harny Peak the rivers flow and the skunks, muskrats, and prairie chickens drink and swim.  In the place where few trees grow the branches are bare and the quails are getting worms from the prairie sun dried grass.  Now that I have told you all about the Plains.  It is a nice place to live.  Don't you think?
 
 
All About the Tipi
     Does your house have poles sticking out of the top?  A tipi does.  This is how the tipi is made.  The tipi is made of buffalo hides and long and short poles.  The poles are stuck in the ground in a form of a circle and lean together to be tied with deer skin.  The poles are also covered with buffalo.  Two longer poles were stuck in the corners to let the fire smoke out.  The tipi looks like a cone tent with sticks coming out and a wide opening.  Inside the tipi was little furniture.  There were back rests and beds made with buffalo robes with the hair left on.  Outside the tipi there is a fire place, and a bunch of horses and a lot of trees too.  Rivers and streams flow where good plants grow pretty and safe.  I told you all about the tipi so do you think you could live in a tipi?  I think I could.

The Sioux Clothing
     Did you wear nothing until the age of ten?  The Sioux boys did!  This is what the women wore some other times.  They wore loosely-fitting and long-sleeved dresses stitched with deerskin.  In the cold, men wore robes and high boots.  In winter, the young girls wore dresses made with deerskin and decorated them with beads, fringe, and small pieces of metal.  The children also wore breech cloths.  They got their cloths by making them from buffalo and deerskin.  Would you like to wear these clothes or the store bought clothes?

 
The Sioux on the Hunt
     Two men left their village to go hunting on a good sunny day.  They hunted for buffalo, elk, birds, and antelope.  It took two days by horse.  They left tracks, and a buffalo followed them.  The two men shot the buffalo.  It took three days by dog sled near the river to the lake, and they caught many fish.  Next it took four days to go up stream to their village and eat the food.  They had a lot of meat left.  It was a good sunny day in the village.  The Sioux men went gathering for berries, cherries, and camas roots.  They also gathered wild prairie turnip with the meat left in it.  The Sioux cooked over a fire and dried the meat to make sun made jerky.  That is the story of the Sioux on the hunt.

Sources

Book: Osinski, Alice.  The Sioux.  1984.

Online database: "South Dakota".  Britannica Elementary Encyclopedia. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Accessed 12-1-2006.

Web site: "Plains Indians".  http://www.mce.k12tn.net/indians/reports4/plains2.htm.  12-20-2006.
 

Native Americans by Mrs. Hardt's Third Grade Class

Native American Index ~ Mrs. Hardt ~ CCS ~ MSAD 50