The Hasinai Confederacy ( Caddo : Hasíinay ) was a large confederation of Caddo -speaking Native Americans who occupied territory between the Sabine and Trinity rivers in eastern Texas. Today, their descendants are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma and the Natchitoches Tribe of Louisiana.
77-675: The name Hasinai means "our own people" in Caddoan. The Spanish knew the Hasinai as the Tejas or Texas , from a form of greeting meaning "friend", which gave the state of Texas its name. Variants of Hasinai include: Hasini , Asenai , Asinai , Assoni , Asenay , Cenis , Senis , Sannaye , Asinaiz , Asinayes , Assinais , Azinais , Azinays . When the Spanish and the French encountered
154-556: A Tanoan language. The historian Dan Flores has suggested that the Jumano associated with the Pueblo villages were the ancestors of the Kiowa , who are also Tanoan-language speakers. The Tompiro towns were abandoned by 1672, probably due to fatalities from epidemics of introduced European diseases, Apache raids, and burdensome Spanish levies of food and labor. Scholars have suggested that
231-445: A broad denuded area as a piedmont deposit by the rivers which issued from the mountains. Since then, it has been more or less dissected by the erosion of valleys. The central section of the plains thus presents a marked contrast to the northern section. While the northern section owes its smoothness to the removal of local gravels and sands from a formerly uneven surface by the action of degrading rivers and their inflowing tributaries,
308-602: A broad stretch of country underlain by nearly horizontal strata extending westward from the 97th meridian west to the base of the Rocky Mountains , a distance of 300 to 500 mi (480 to 800 km). It extends northward from the Mexican boundary far into Canada. Although the altitude of the plains increases gradually from 600 ft (180 m) or 1,200 ft (370 m) on the east to 4,000–5,000 ft (1,200–1,500 m) or 6,000 ft (1,800 m) near
385-571: A fourth group of people in Texas may have been Jumano. In 1541, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado encountered a group of people he called Teyas at the headwaters of the Brazos River . Scholars have suggested that the Teyas were Apache, Wichita , or Jumano. American anthropologist Carroll Riley suggests that they were the nomadic relatives of the Pueblo villagers of Gran Quivira and the salines. Over
462-603: A gradual transition, this rainfall line may be taken to divide the drier plains from the moister prairies. However, in Canada the eastern boundary of the plains is well defined by the presence of the Canadian Shield to the northeast. The plains (within the United States) may be described in northern, intermediate, central and southern sections, in relation to certain peculiar features. In Canada, no such division
539-535: A new people in a process of ethnogenesis , formed from refugees fleeing the effects of disease, Spanish missions, and Spanish slaving raids south of the Rio Grande. Cabeza de Vaca may have encountered the Jumano in 1535 near La Junta , the junction of the Conchos River and Rio Grande at Presidio, Texas . He describes his visit to the "people of the cows" in one of the towns, but these may have been
616-612: A similar language—with the people living at La Junta, but were distinct from them. From their recognized homeland between the Pecos and Concho Rivers in Texas, the Jumano traveled widely to trade meat and skins to the Patarabueye and other Indians in exchange for agricultural products. The Spanish identified as Humanas or Ximenas the people associated with the Tompiro Pueblos of the salinas , an area about 50 miles east of
693-571: A tribe or several tribes, who inhabited a large area of western Texas , New Mexico , and northern Mexico , especially near the Junta de los Rios region with its large settled Indigenous population. They lived in the Big Bend area in the mountain and basin region. Spanish explorers first recorded encounters with the Jumano in 1581. Later expeditions noted them in a broad area of the Southwest and
770-594: A west-northwest direction in what is now Oklahoma and Texas which is now known as the De Soto Trail. The Spanish thought that the Great Plains were the location of the mythological Quivira and Cíbola , a place said to be rich in gold. People in the southwest began to acquire horses in the 16th century by trading or stealing them from Spanish colonists in New Mexico. As horse culture moved northward,
847-404: Is about 500 mi (800 km) east to west and 2,000 mi (3,200 km) north to south. Much of the region was home to American bison herds until they were hunted to near extinction during the mid/late-19th century. It has an area of approximately 500,000 sq mi (1,300,000 km ). Current thinking regarding the geographic boundaries of the Great Plains is shown by this map at
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#1732776571396924-526: Is extraordinarily smooth. It is very dry, except for occasional shallow and temporary water sheets after rains. Llano is separated from the plains on the north by the mature consequent valley of the Canadian River , and from the mountains on the west by the broad and probably mature valley of the Pecos River . On the east, it is strongly undercut by the retrogressive erosion of the headwaters of
1001-506: Is peculiarly elaborate. Known as the Badlands , it is a minutely dissected form with a relief of a few hundred feet. This is due to several causes: The central section of the Great Plains, between latitudes 42° and 36° , occupying eastern Colorado and western Kansas , is mostly a dissected fluviatile plain. That is, this section was once smoothly covered with a gently sloping plain of gravel and sand that had been spread far forward on
1078-455: Is used: the climatic and vegetation regions are more impactful on human settlement than mere topography, and therefore the region is split into (from north to south), the taiga plains, boreal plains , aspen parkland , and prairie ecoregion regions. The northern section of the Great Plains, north of latitude 44° , includes eastern Montana , eastern Wyoming , most of North Dakota and South Dakota , southwestern Minnesota and portions of
1155-563: The American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americus), Salt Creek Tiger Beetle (Cinidela nevadica lincolniana), Great Plains Giant Tiger Beetle (Amblycheila chylindriformis), Microstylum morosum , Bean leaf beetle (Cerotoma trifurcata), Great Plains Camel Cricket (Daihinia brevipes), and the Great plains spittlebug (Lepyronia gibbosa). Some species in the Great plains have gone extinct in
1232-593: The Arikara , Mandan , Pawnee , and Wichita . Wars with the Ojibwe and Cree peoples pushed the Lakota (Teton Sioux) west onto the Great Plains in the mid- to late-17th century. The Shoshone originated in the western Great Basin and spread north and east into present-day Idaho and Wyoming. By 1500, some Eastern Shoshone had crossed the Rocky Mountains into the Great Plains. After 1750, warfare and pressure from
1309-593: The Black Hills region and emerged on the Southern Plains about 1800 as the Kiowa . Scholars have been unable to determine what language family the language was spoken by the historic Jumano belongs to, but Uto-Aztecan , Tanoan , and Athabascan have been suggested. Great Plains The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flatland in North America . The region is located just to
1386-825: The Department of the Interior . In contrast, U.S. Forest Service , an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture , administers the National Forests and National Grasslands, under a multiple-use concept. By law, the U.S. Forest Service must consider all resources, with no single resource emphasized to the detriment of others, including water, soil, grazing, timber harvesting, and minerals (mining and drilling), as well as recreation and conservation of fish and wildlife. Each individual state also administers state lands, typically smaller areas, for various purposes including conservation and recreation. Grasslands are among
1463-968: The Great Plains toad ( Anaxyrus cognatus ), plains leopard frog ( Lithobates blairi ), and plains spadefoot toad ( Spea bombifrons ). Some species predominately associated with various river basins in the Great Plains include sturgeon chub ( Macrhybopsis gelida ), peppered chub ( Macrhybopsis tetranema ), prairie chub ( Macrhybopsis australis ), western silvery minnow ( Hybognathus argyritis ), plains minnow ( Hybognathus placitus ), smalleye shiner ( Notropis buccula ), Arkansas River shiner ( Notropis girardi ), Red River shiner ( Notropis bairdi ), Topeka shiner ( Notropis topeka ), plains topminnow ( Fundulus sciadicus ), plains killifish ( Fundulus zebrinus ), Red River pupfish ( Cyprinodon rubrofluviatilis ), and Arkansas darter ( Etheostoma cragini ). The great plains also has many invertebrate species living here both alive and extinct such as
1540-703: The Julimes , Tobosos , and Conchos living progressively further south along the Conchos River from its intersection with the Rio Grande. The Jumano of the late 17th century sought an alliance with the Spanish. They were under pressure from the Lipan Apache and Mescalero Apache advancing from the north, and drought had adversely affected the agricultural yields and the buffalo herds in their territory. The Jumano asked for Christian missions to be established in their territory; they tried to mediate between
1617-569: The Pecos River near Pecos, Texas as being Jumano. The hunters were known to have close relations with the Indians at La Junta, but whether they were full-time bison -hunting nomads, or lived part of each year in La Junta is uncertain. Charles Kelley has suggested that the sedentary people living at La Junta were Patarabueye and the bison hunters were Jumano. In this scenario, the nomadic Jumano maintained close relations—and possibly spoke
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#17327765713961694-657: The Plains Indians or the Plains states . In Canada the term is rarely used; Natural Resources Canada , the government department responsible for official mapping, treats the Interior Plains as one unit consisting of several related plateaus and plains. There is no region referred to as the "Great Plains" in the Atlas of Canada . In terms of human geography, the term prairie is more commonly used in Canada, and
1771-588: The Southern Plains . The last historical reference was in a 19th-century oral history , but their population had already declined by the early 18th century. Scholars have generally argued that the Jumanos disappeared as a distinct people by 1750 due to infectious disease, the slave trade, and warfare, with remnants absorbed by the Apache or Comanche . Frederick Webb Hodge proposed that they merged into
1848-517: The Wichita people . Variant spellings of the name attested in Spanish documents include Jumana , Xumana , Humana , Umana , Xoman , Sumana , Chome , Humano , Juman , Xumano , and Xume . Spanish records from the 16th to the 18th centuries frequently refer to the Jumano Indians, and the French mentioned them as present in areas in eastern Texas, as well. During the last decades of
1925-455: The 17th century, they were noted as traders and political leaders in the Southwest. Contemporary scholars are uncertain whether the Jumano were a single people organized into discrete bands, or whether the Spanish used Jumano as a generic term to refer to several different groups, as the references spanned peoples across a large geographic area. The Jumano have been identified in the historical record of present-day Texas. They combined and became
2002-556: The Blackfoot, Crow, Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho pushed Eastern Shoshone south and westward. Some of them moved as far south as Texas, emerging as the Comanche by 1700. The first known contact between Europeans and Indians in the Great Plains occurred in what is now Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska from 1540 to 1542 with the arrival of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado , a Spanish conquistador. In that same period, Hernando de Soto crossed
2079-664: The Caddi run the system. During the 17th century, the Hasinai traded with the Jumano at the western Hasinai city of Nabedache. Some consider the residents of Nabedache to have been a distinct people designated by that name. It is estimated that in 1520, the people who would become the Hasinai, the Kadohadacho and the Natchitoches , numbered about 250,000. Over the next 250 years, the population of these Caddoan-speaking peoples
2156-503: The Canadian provinces including southeastern Alberta , southern Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba . The strata here are Cretaceous or early Tertiary , lying nearly horizontal. The surface is shown to be a plain of degradation by a gradual ascent here and there to the crest of a ragged escarpment, the escarpment-remnant of a resistant stratum. There are also the occasional lava -capped mesas and dike formed ridges, surmounting
2233-462: The Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln . This definition, however, is primarily ecological, not physiographic. The Boreal Plains of Western Canada are physiographically the same, but differentiated by their tundra and forest (rather than grassland) appearance. The term "Great Plains", for the region west of about the 96th meridian west and east of the Rocky Mountains ,
2310-557: The Comanche were among the first to commit to a fully mounted nomadic lifestyle. This occurred by the 1730s, when they had acquired enough horses to put all their people on horseback. The real beginning of the horse culture of the plains began with the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 in New Mexico and the capture of thousands of horses and other livestock. In 1683 a Spanish expedition into Texas found horses among Native people. In 1690,
2387-551: The Great Plains and into the valleys and lower elevations of the eastern Rocky Mountains and portions of the American southwest . Other snakes include the plains hog-nosed snake ( Heterodon nasicus ), western milksnake ( Lampropeltis gentilis ), great plains ratsnake ( Pantherophis emoryi ), bullsnake ( Pituophis catenifer sayi ), plains black-headed snake ( Tantilla nigriceps ), plains gartersnake ( Thamnophis radix ), and lined snake ( Tropidoclonion lineatum ). Reptile diversity increases significantly in southern regions of
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2464-629: The Great Plains and that included trade networks west to the Rocky Mountains. Mississippians settled the Great Plains at sites now in Oklahoma and South Dakota . Siouan language speakers may have originated in the lower Mississippi River region. They were agriculturalists and may have been part of the Mound Builder civilization during the 9th–12th centuries. Pressure from other Indian tribes, themselves driven west and south by
2541-588: The Great Plains include National Parks and National Monuments, administers by the National Park Service with the responsibility of preserving ecological and historical places and making them available to the public. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service manages the National Wildlife Refuges, with the primary responsibility of conserving and protecting fish, wildlife, plants, and habitat in the public trust. Both are agencies of
2618-476: The Great Plains include the swift fox ( Vulpes velox ) and the endangered black-footed ferret ( Mustela nigripes ). The lesser prairie chicken ( Tympanuchus pallidicinctus ) is endemic to the Great Plains and the distribution of the greater prairie chicken ( Tympanuchus cupido ) predominantly occurs in the region, although the latter historically ranged further eastward. The Harris's sparrow ( Zonotrichia querula ) spends winter months in southern areas of
2695-512: The Great Plains is the most tornado active area in the world and is sometimes referred to as Tornado Alley . The Great Plains are part of the floristic North American Prairies province , which extends from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachians . Although the American bison ( Bison bison ) historically ranged throughout much of North America (from New York to Oregon and Canada to northern Mexico), they are strongly associated with
2772-573: The Great Plains or alternatively the western portion of the Great Plains. The Great Plains lie across both the Central United States and Western Canada , encompassing: The term "Great Plains" is used in the United States to describe a sub-section of the even more vast Interior Plains physiographic division, which covers much of the interior of North America. It also has currency as a region of human geography , referring to
2849-751: The Great Plains where they once roamed in immense herds. Pronghorn ( Antilocapra americana ) range into western areas of the region. The black-tailed prairie dog ( Cynomys ludovicianus ) is another iconic species among several rodents that are linked to the region including the thirteen-lined ground squirrel ( Ictidomys tridecemlineatus ), spotted ground squirrel ( Xerospermophilus spilosoma ), Franklin's ground squirrel ( Poliocitellus franklinii ), plains pocket gopher ( Geomys bursarius ), hispid pocket mouse ( Chaetodipus hispidus ), olive-backed pocket mouse ( Perognathus fasciatus ), plains pocket mouse ( Perognathus flavescens ), and plains harvest mouse ( Reithrodontomys montanus ), Two carnivores associated with
2926-488: The Great Plains. The ornate box turtle ( Terrapene ornata ) and great plains skink ( Plestiodon obsoletus ) occur in southern areas. Although few salamanders are strongly associated with region, the western tiger salamander ( Ambystoma mavortium ) ranges through much of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, as does the Rocky Mountain toad ( Anaxyrus w. woodhousi ). Other anurans related to region include
3003-462: The Hasinai in the 1680s, they were a centrally organized chiefdom under the control of a religious leader, known as the Grand Xinesi. He lived in a secluded house and met with a council of elders. The chieftainship consisted of several subdivisions, which have been designated "cantonments". Each was under the control of a Caddi. There were also men designated as Canahas and Chayas, who helped
3080-503: The High Plains) is periodically subjected to extended periods of drought ; high winds in the region may then generate devastating dust storms . The eastern Great Plains near the eastern boundary falls in the humid subtropical climate zone in the southern areas, and the northern and central areas fall in the humid continental climate . Many thunderstorms occur in the plains in the spring through summer. The southeastern portion of
3157-753: The Jumano includes multiple ethnic groups from diverse regions of Texas. They combined and became a new people in a process of ethnogenesis, formed from refugees fleeing the effects of disease, Spanish missions , and Spanish slaving raids south of the Rio Grande. In the 16th century when the Spanish came to the Tompiro Pueblos of New Mexico, the Tompiro traded extensively with the Jumano. Historical records indicate Franciscan missionaries, including Juan de Salas , were surprised when Jumanos approached them requesting baptism. The Jumanos stated that they received instruction from "a lady in blue", believed to be Sister Mary of Jesus of Ágreda . Scholars estimate that in 1580,
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3234-650: The Red, Brazos, and Colorado rivers of Texas and presents a ragged escarpment approximately 500 to 800 ft (150 to 240 m) high, overlooking the central denuded area of that state. There, between the Brazos and Colorado rivers, occurs a series of isolated outliers capped by limestone that underlies both the Llano Uplift on the west and the Grand Prairies escarpment on the east. The southern and narrow part of
3311-427: The Rio Grande on the border of the Great Plains. The pueblo later called Gran Quivira was the largest of several Jumano towns. This location enabled trading with the buffalo-hunting Indians of the Great Plains. The Jumano also mined extensive salt deposits, for which the Spanish named the region salinas . They traded salt for agricultural produce. The people living in the Tompiro pueblos have been identified as speaking
3388-579: The Spanish and other tribes. The Spanish visited them in the homeland on the Concho River in 1629, 1650, and 1654. In 1654, the Spanish of the Diego de Guadalajara expedition aided the Jumano in a battle against the Cuitaos (probably the Wichita ) and gained a rich harvest of bison skins. In the 1680s, the Jumano chief Juan Sabeata was prominent in forging trade and religious ties with the Spanish. In
3465-548: The Spanish referred to the two tribes as the Apache Jumanos. By 1750, the Jumano had nearly disappeared from the historical record as a distinct people. They appeared to have been absorbed by bands of Lipan and Mescalero Apache, Caddo, and Wichita; died of infectious diseases, or become detribalized when living at Spanish missions in Central Texas. If Flores' speculation is correct, they may have migrated north to
3542-716: The area of the ancient Great Plains for thousands to millions of years. The vast majority of these animals became extinct in North America at the end of the Pleistocene (around 13,000 years ago). A number of significant fossil sites are located in the Great Plains including Agate Fossil Beds National Monument ( Nebraska ), Ashfall Fossil Beds ( Nebraska ), Clayton Lake State Park ( New Mexico ), Dinosaur Valley State Park ( Texas ), Hudson-Meng Bison Kill (Nebraska), Makoshika State Park (Montana), and The Mammoth Site ( South Dakota ). Public and protected lands in
3619-471: The central section, it is for the most part a dissected fluviatile plain. However, the lower lands which surround it on all sides place it in such strong relief that it stands up as a table-land, known from the time of Mexican occupation as the Llano Estacado . It measures roughly 150 mi (240 km) east-west and 400 mi (640 km) north-south. It is of very irregular outline, narrowing to
3696-649: The east of the Rocky Mountains , much of it covered in prairie , steppe , and grassland . They are the western part of the Interior Plains , which include the mixed grass prairie , the tallgrass prairie between the Great Lakes and Appalachian Plateau , and the Taiga Plains and Boreal Plains ecozones in Northern Canada . "Great Plains", or Western Plains , is also the ecoregion of
3773-531: The encroachment of European settlers as well as economic incentives such as the fur trade, alongside the arrival of the horse and firearms from Europe pushed multiple tribes onto the Great Plains. Among those to have lived on the Great Plains were the Blackfoot , Crow , Sioux , Cheyenne , Arapaho , Comanche , and others. Eastern portions of the Great Plains were inhabited by tribes who lived at Etzanoa and in semi-permanent villages of earth lodges, such as
3850-433: The general level by 500 ft (150 m) or more and manifestly demonstrating the widespread erosion of the surrounding plains. All these reliefs are more plentiful towards the mountains in central Montana. The peneplain is no longer in the cycle of erosion that witnessed its production. It appears to have suffered a regional uplift or increase in elevation, for the upper Missouri River and its branches no longer flow on
3927-760: The great plains like the Rocky Mountain Locust (Melanoplus spretus). During the Cretaceous Period (145–66 million years ago), the Great Plains were covered by a shallow inland sea called the Western Interior Seaway . However, during the Late Cretaceous to the Paleocene (65–55 million years ago), the seaway had begun to recede, leaving behind thick marine deposits and a relatively flat terrain which
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#17327765713964004-501: The largest group. They rise like a large island from the sea, occupying an oval area of about 100 mi (160 km) north-south by 50 mi (80 km) east-west. At Black Elk Peak , they reach an altitude of 7,216 ft (2,199 m) and have an effective relief over the plains of 2,000 or 3,000 ft (610 or 910 m) This mountain mass is of flat-arched, dome-like structure, now well dissected by radiating consequent streams. The weaker uppermost strata have been eroded down to
4081-413: The latter part of the 17th century, the colonists seem to have lost interest in the Jumano, transferring their priorities to the Caddo of east Texas. The Caddo were more numerous and of greater concern to the Spanish because the French were trying to establish a trading foothold among them. In the early 18th century, the Jumano tried to create an alliance with their historical enemies the Apache. By 1729,
4158-468: The least protected biomes. Humans have converted much of the prairies for agricultural purposes or to create pastures. Several of the protected lands in the region are centered around aberrant and uncharacteristic features of the region, such as mountains, outcrops, and canyons (e.g. Devil's Tower National Monument , Wind Cave National Park , Scotts Bluff National Monument ), and as splendid and worthy as they are, they are not primarily focused on conserving
4235-426: The level of the plains where their upturned edges are evenly truncated. The next following harder strata have been sufficiently eroded to disclose the core of underlying igneous and metamorphic crystalline rocks in about half of the domed area. In the intermediate section of the plains, between latitudes 44° and 42° , including southern South Dakota and northern Nebraska , the erosion of certain large districts
4312-424: The line that divides the Great Plains into an area that receives 20 in (510 mm) or more of rainfall per year and an area that receives less than 20 in (510 mm). In this context, the High Plains, as well as Southern Alberta , south-western Saskatchewan and Eastern Montana are mainly semi arid steppe land and are generally characterised by rangeland or marginal farmland . The region (especially
4389-570: The more common "prairie". The Great Plains are the westernmost portion of the vast North American Interior Plains , which extend east to the Appalachian Plateau . The United States Geological Survey divides the Great Plains in the United States into ten physiographic subdivisions: Further to this can be added Canadian physiographic sub-regions such as the Alberta Plain, Cypress Hills , Manitoba Escarpment (eastward), Manitoba Plain, Missouri Coteau (shared), Rocky Mountain Foothills (eastward), and Saskatchewan Plain. The Great Plains consist of
4466-442: The mountains, the local relief is generally small. The semi-arid climate excludes tree growth and opens far-reaching views. The plains are by no means a simple unit. They are of diverse structure and of various stages of erosional development. They are occasionally interrupted by buttes and escarpments . They are frequently broken by valleys. Yet on the whole, a broadly extended surface of moderate relief so often prevails that
4543-436: The name, Great Plains, for the region as a whole is well-deserved. The western boundary of the plains is usually well-defined by the abrupt ascent of the mountains. The eastern boundary of the plains (in the United States) is more climatic than topographic . The line of 20 in (510 mm) of annual rainfall trends a little east of northward near the 97th meridian. If a boundary must be drawn where nature presents only
4620-575: The next two centuries, the people who became known as the Wichita were often referred to as Jumano in the historical record. Scholars agree that, at a minimum, the Jumanos comprised the nomadic bison-hunting people of the Pecos and Concho River valleys of Texas. Since as nomads and traders, they were often found far from their homeland, this may account for the Spanish having referred to a variety of Indians of different cultures and locations as Jumano. In his book The Indian Southwest: 1580-1830: Ethnogenesis and Reinvention (1999), Gary Anderson proposes that
4697-434: The plains and prairies. United States: Canada: the Great Plains biome is found to be at the brink of collapse due to woody plant encroachment , with 62% of Northern American grassland lost to date. The first Peoples ( Paleo-Indians ) arrived on the Great Plains thousands of years ago. The introduction of corn around 800 CE allowed the development of the mound-building Mississippian culture along rivers that crossed
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#17327765713964774-407: The population of Native Americans, partially or wholly Jumano, living along the Rio Grande and the Pecos River was somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000. Other people may have been identified as part of the Jumano people, or at least closely associated with them, living further east in Texas at this time. Other groups closely associated with the Jumano and who at times have been identified as Jumano were
4851-784: The region is known as the Canadian Prairies , prairie provinces or simply "the prairies". The North American Environmental Atlas , produced by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation , a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) agency composed of the geographical agencies of the Mexican, American, and Canadian governments, uses the "Great Plains" as an ecoregion synonymous with predominant prairies and grasslands rather than as physiographic region defined by topography. The Great Plains ecoregion includes five sub-regions: Temperate Prairies, West-Central Semi-Arid Prairies, South-Central Semi-Arid Prairies, Texas Louisiana Coastal Plains, and Tamaulipas-Texas Semi-Arid Plain, which overlap or expand upon other Great Plains designations. The region
4928-647: The region. Other species migrate from the south in the spring and spend their breeding season on the plains, including the white-faced ibis ( Plegadis chihi ), mountain plover ( Charadrius montanus ), marbled godwit ( Limosa fedoa ), Sprague's pipit ( Anthus spragueii ), Cassin's sparrow ( Peucaea cassinii ), Baird's sparrow ( Centronyx bairdii ), lark bunting ( Calamospiza melanocorys ), chestnut-collared longspur ( Calcarius ornatus ), thick-billed longspur or McCown's longspur ( Rhynchophanes mccownii ), and dickcissel ( Spiza americana ). The prairie rattlesnake ( Crotalus viridis ) ranges throughout much of
5005-474: The river from a better graded preglacial valley by the Pleistocene ice sheet . Here, the ice sheet overspread the plains from the moderately elevated Canadian highlands far on the north-east, instead of from the much higher mountains nearby on the west. The present altitude of the plains near the mountain base is 4,000 ft (1,200 m). The northern plains are interrupted by several small mountain areas. The Black Hills, chiefly in western South Dakota, are
5082-456: The seaway had once occupied. During the Cenozoic era , specifically about 25 million years ago during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs, the continental climate became favorable to the evolution of grasslands. Existing forest biomes declined and grasslands became much more widespread. The grasslands provided a new niche for mammals, including many ungulates and glires , that switched from browsing diets to grazing diets. Traditionally,
5159-568: The semi-nomadic Jumano. The Spanish explorer Antonio de Espejo first used the term Jumano in 1582, to refer to agricultural peoples living at La Junta. This area was a trade crossroads and seems to have attracted numerous Indians of different tribes, of which the Jumano were one group. Among the other names the Spanish used for Indian groups near La Junta were the Cabris, Julimes , Passaguates, Patarabueyes, Amotomancos, Otomacos, Cholomes , Abriaches, and Caguates. A member of Espejo's expedition identified some bison-hunters whom they encountered on
5236-436: The settled Indians of La Junta. They were people "with the best bodies that we saw and the greatest liveliness." He described their cooking method, in which they dropped hot stones into prepared gourds to cook their food, rather cooking in pottery. Their cooking technique was common among the nomads of the Great Plains , for whom pottery was too fragile to be transported. For this reason, scholars think he may have been describing
5313-405: The south. Its altitude is 5,500 ft (1,700 m) at the highest western point, nearest the mountains whence its gravels were supplied. From there, it slopes southeastward at a decreasing rate, first about 12 ft (3.7 m), then about 7 ft/mi (1.3 m/km), to its eastern and southern borders, where it is 2,000 ft (610 m) in altitude. Like the High Plains farther north, it
5390-459: The southern section owes its smoothness to the deposition of imported gravels and sands upon a previously uneven surface by the action of aggrading rivers and their outgoing distributaries. The two sections are also alike in that residual eminences still here and there surmount the peneplain of the northern section, while the fluviatile plain of the central section completely buried the pre-existent relief. An exception to this statement must be made for
5467-416: The southwest, close to the mountains in southern Colorado, where some lava-capped mesas ( Mesa de Maya , Raton Mesa ) stand several thousand feet above the general plain level, and thus testify to the widespread erosion of this region before it was aggraded. The southern section of the Great Plains, between latitudes 35.5° and 25.5°, lies in western Texas , eastern New Mexico , and western Oklahoma . Like
5544-588: The spread of grasslands and the development of grazers have been strongly linked. However, an examination of mammalian teeth suggests that it is the open, gritty habitat and not the grass itself which is linked to diet changes in mammals, giving rise to the " grit, not grass " hypothesis. Paleontological finds in the area have yielded bones of mammoths , saber-toothed cats and other ancient animals, as well as dozens of other megafauna (large animals over 100 lb [45 kg]) – such as giant sloths , horses , mastodons , and American lion – that dominated
5621-602: The subdued forms of the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma , the westernmost member of the Ouachita system. The term "Western Plains" is used to describe the ecoregion of the Great Plains, or alternatively the western portion of the Great Plains. In general, the Great Plains have a wide range of weather, with very cold and harsh winters and very hot and humid summers. Wind speeds are often very high, especially in winter. The 100th meridian roughly corresponds with
5698-464: The surface of the plain, but in well graded, maturely opened valleys, several hundred feet below the general level. A significant exception to the rule of mature valleys occurs, however, in the case of the Missouri, the largest river, which is broken by several falls on hard sandstones about 50 mi (80 km) east of the mountains. This peculiar feature is explained as the result of displacement of
5775-590: The table-land, called the Edwards Plateau , is more dissected than the rest, and falls off to the south in a frayed-out fault scarp. This scarp overlooks the coastal plain of the Rio Grande embayment . The central denuded area, east of the Llano, resembles the east-central section of the plains in exposing older rocks. Between these two similar areas, in the space limited by the Canadian and Red Rivers, rise
5852-637: Was not generally used before the early 20th century. Nevin Fenneman's 1916 study Physiographic Subdivision of the United States brought the term Great Plains into more widespread usage. Before that the region was almost invariably called the High Plains, in contrast to the lower Prairie Plains of the Midwestern states . Today the term " High Plains " is used for a subregion of the Great Plains. The term still remains little-used in Canada compared to
5929-462: Was severely reduced by epidemics of endemic diseases carried by Spanish and French colonists and spread through indigenous trading networks. Native Americans had no acquired immunity to the new diseases, and suffered high mortality. In 1690, the Hasinai numbered in the vicinity of 10,000 people or a little more. By 1720, as a result of infectious diseases such as smallpox , the Hasinai population had fallen to 2,000. Jumano The Jumanos were
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