Teribus, don't assume anything about people agreeing with you, certainly not me. You're making large inaccurate generalizations all over the place.

Yes SRS I am assuming that they were living off the land to rationalize the group size and their activities. That by definition is what "Hunter/Gatherers" do. That is why, in the dim and distant past, when hunter/gatherers came into competition from agrarian groups the hunter/gathers always lost out and had to move. It matters not one jot how expert these people were at building up stores, they would have transport those stores and for the North American Plains Indian that would pose some very serious problems. I dare say that there would be preserved (dried) food, how much? how is it to be kept dry? It all adds bulk, weight, effort and resources to the exercise, which is exactly what I was saying. Conditionally, what you say is very true in that "Living a nomadic life doesn't mean they didn't know where their next meal was coming from" - the condition? That your premise only holds good as long as those living that nomadic life aren't wandering around in groups of 20,000 people.


These people were incredibly efficient hunters and storers food. They didn't go around all of the time in a group of 20,000, but they could easily come together for a time, as in fact they did in the Greasy Grass right before Custer arrived.

You obviously haven't read about the "nomadic" tribe's vast stores of food that were destroyed in winter camps (that did leave them destitute and dependent on their neighbors) after military raids destroyed their supplies. We're not talking "hunters and gatherers" as if there was no trade or agriculture going on at the same time. You're vastly oversimplifying the situation as it existed. Just because YOU don't know how they moved it, packed it, and kept it dry, doesn't mean they didn't do that.

I frankly have no time to go digging out the citations necessary to refute your unsubstantiated claims here. I have a job to do. But don't go on presuming circumstances and continuing to make uneducated presumptions just because people are too busy to call you on your mistakes.

SRS