The Story Beneath Your Feet

The Story Beneath Your Feet. Colorado. The Buffalo Symbol , The buffalo symbol, displayed in the walkways of this plaza, has been developed to symbolize the great importance that this animal had in Plains Indian cultures. For peoples such as the Arapahos and Cheyennes, who moved into the region after 1800, the buffalo - or American bison - became a central element in nearly every aspect of life. Plains Indians hunted buffalo for food; used the hide for clothing, tipi covers, and battle shields; and bound the bison into their spiritual life. , Immense buffalo herds once blackened the prairie in what seemed like limitless numbers, but the resettlement of the region in the 19th century brought on an ecological catastrophe. The hunting, farming, and ranching that marked the resettlement process decimated the great herds. Perhaps as many as 60 million buffalo roamed the plains in 1800, but only a few hundred animals survived in small, scattered groups by 1900. The species only narrowly avoided extinction. , The Horse Travois , Until the Spanish arrived in the 1490s, the horse was unknown in the Americas - native peoples of this region hunted and traveled on foot. By the 1700s, however, many large wild horse herds had developed, and as the Indian peoples adapted the horse, it gradually transformed their cultures. The horse entered their spiritual lives, became a source and symbol of wealth, and served many everyday purposes. , One purpose was hauling property via the horse travois, pictured below. The Arapahos. Cheyennes. and many other peoples had long used the dog travois - tipi or other poles attached to a simple harness - for hauling their possessions from place to place. But the horse travois proved faster and far more efficient and displaced the dog travois., The Tipi , The halfmoon shape displayed in the plaza behind you represents an unrolled tipi, actual size. The tipi was a good home and shelter for the plains people who followed the great buttalo herds. The tipi was portable, easily set up, and resistant to water, rain, and snow. The flap at the top deflected the winds and provided smoke ventilation so that a fire could be inside. Many tipis, clustered together, formed the relatively mobile Indian village. , Women - not men - were responsible for the tipi and as such they were the owners. In Cheyenne culture, for example, when a couple divorced, the husband was thrown out of the lodge - that is his wife tossed out his belongings. She stayed on; he went elsewhere.