Q 01/05

Long before horses arrived, how did Plains Indian hunters at Head-Smashed-In kill many bison at once?

A) Trapped them in tar pits

B) Drove them over a cliff

C) Flooded a river valley

D) Dug pits lined with spikes

Answer · why

B) Drove them over a cliff

Hunters drove them over a cliff, a method used at this Alberta site for about 5,500 years, and the bones left at the bottom lie 12 metres deep.

Q 02/05

Which fuel, nicknamed 'chips', did Plains Indians gather for cooking fires on grasslands with few trees?

A) Dried bison dung

B) Bundles of sagebrush

C) Rendered bear fat

D) Slabs of cut peat

Answer · why

A) Dried bison dung

Dried bison dung was one of the few things on the open prairie that would burn, so settlers crossing in wagons collected it for their own cooking fire...

Q 03/05

What did Plains Indian nations with different spoken languages use to trade and hold councils with one another?

A) Smoke signals

B) Picture writing

C) Drum codes

D) Sign language

Answer · why

D) Sign language

Sign language, known as Hand Talk, worked as a common tongue across much of North America, and some deaf people still use it day to day.

Q 04/05

Which Wyoming landmark got its grooved sides, in Kiowa and Lakota legend, from the claws of giant bears?

A) Independence Rock

B) Old Faithful

C) Devils Tower

D) Grand Teton

Answer · why

C) Devils Tower

Devils Tower is called Bear Lodge by several Plains nations, and in the story the rock rose skyward to lift a group of girls out of the bears' reach.

Q 05/05

Which part of an animal did Plains Indian tanners rub into a scraped hide to turn it into soft buckskin?

A) The brain

B) The heart

C) The tongue

D) The lungs

Answer · why

A) The brain

The brain was worked into the raw hide and the skin was then smoked, a pairing that leaves the leather soft, pliable and the colour of dark honey.