Hoebel, The Cheyennes: Indians Of The Great Plains Essay

E. Adamson Hoebels The Cheyennes Indians of the Great Plains is a detailed, comprehensive ethnographic study of the commonwealths beliefs, practices, and adaptation to their harsh environment. Though non the strongest Plains people, the Cheyenne utilise their strengths to overcome their obstacles and maintain a cohesive, stable culture. A sedentary closure culture of the Algonquian language family, the Cheyenne moved from the upper manuscript valley to the high plains of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming around 1800 to escape the hostilities of the neighboring Lakota (5).Their settled ways were disrupted and they became horse-riding and nomadic, leaving behind their village ways. Hoebel depicts their culture as organise yet flexible, rational and skilled in cultural adaptation (103), and geared to ward internal harmony as a means of maintaining cohesion. The harsh plains environment, with intense weather and little water or wood, is the essential ecological fact controlling t he Cheyenne (63). They adapted to this by becoming mobile, moving harmonise to where resources could be easily obtained, mastering their gathering, hunting, and merchandise skills over a long area, and relying heavily on horses.Their religion is hierarchical, with being at all levels endue with spiritual powers. Spirits can manifest in human tier and their attributes lie in their knowledge of how to operate within the universe. Hoebel writes that the Cheyenne swear the universe if essentially a mechanical carcass which is good in essence, but which must be properly understood and used to throttle it producing what humans need (89). They see the universe mechanically, with spirits responding somewhat predictably according to human acts. To survive in their dry grassland environment, the Cheyenne divided their labor rigidly along gender lines.The women gathered roots, berries, and seeds duration in any case foraging for wood, raising and mending tipis, while the men hunted loose game (mainly bison, antelope, and elk) for meat and smaller animals (wolves and fox) for fur. Gender roles govern not wholly labor, but also most areas of Cheyenne social life. Males and females generally hold mixed-sex socializing at adolescence, and males join any of five military clubs in one case they reach fighting age, while women have only the Robe Quillers (an operation of their role as makers of clothing).However, some deviation exists Contraries become transvestites while overdoing the warrior role, while halfmen-halfwomen are homosexual. (Both are isolated yet tolerated. ) The Cheyenne economic system relied heavily on trade, though because of their location on the high plains they had particular(a) access to many traders. They often served as intermediaries between poorer and richer tribes, traveled expectant distances to trade their meat and vegetable goods (as well as robes and leather goods) for more(prenominal)(prenominal) food, as well as ornamental i tems like beads and argent jewelry.Their most important commodity was the horse, often acquired in trade or stolen from enemies in raids. Cheyenne politics were organized by family, kindred, and band, and governed by the tribal council, where power lay not in the hands of aggressive war leaders but under the control of even-tempered peace chiefs (43). collected mainly of older men elected for ten-year terms, the council worked to resolve internal conflicts, which were considered more threatening than war, and had a nearly supernatural authority.A head priest-chief (the seraphical Medicine Chief) and five medicine chiefs presided and had control over most rituals. Hoebels study examines most major areas of the Cheyennes lives and depicts them as a tribe that survived not by overwhelming power, but by adapting well to a demanding environment, trading as well as possible, and maintaining internal harmony and stability.Hoebel, E. Adamson. The Cheyennes Indians of the Great Plains. p ertly York Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978.