Howard Terpning
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The Great Plains was the crucible within which Indians, buffalo and horses were fused into a distinct prairie culture that brought about the epoch of Plains Indian ascendancy. It is not possible to understand anything at all about Indians in the early American West without understanding their relationship to the land, and how they perceived that relationship. To the Indian, the Earth was his mother. She provided a place for him upon her bosom, and wood and water for his needs. She gave grass to the buffalo and the horse, and favored her chosen children with a mother's munificence. The Indian saw himself as a transitory tenant upon the land. He would prosper, or perish, according to the unfathomable intentions of the mother. The land was a sentient, living entity to the Indian, worthy and deserving of respect and reverence. The Indian lived with the land, rather than struggling against it or attempting to shape it to his own design.