ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Plains Indian past as it has been interpreted by anthropologists. Biological anthropologists sometimes work closely with archaeologists to reconstruct the human past. The length of time that humans have been present on the Plains is a question. Although local archaeologists began unearthing ancient artifacts on the Plains, the earliest professional anthropologists believed the Plains were pretty much uninhabited before the Historic Period. The earliest humans on the Plains are called Paleoindians. The Plains Archaic was a long period with many local forms and distinct point types. Linguistics, the study of the structure, history, and social uses of human languages, is an essential discipline in the study of Plains Indians. At the dawn of the Historic Period, some of the tribes located on the Plains were descended from populations that had been in the region for many generations. In historic times the Plains has been home to seven broad language families and 32 tribes.
