People and Environmental Change on the Northern Great Plains

This web site is a unit of an educational project funded in part by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, Region VIII, 8PM-GAC.
Uses HTML 3.0, including frames on the Future? pages below. If you don't have a browser that supports frames, click here.

How Environmental Transformations on the Great Plains
Have Affected Human Cultural Development

Humans affect the land wherever they live. To survive, people take from the land the things they need for food and shelter. They adjust to the landscape and climate. The environment becomes part of who people are, affecting their attitudes toward themselves, people in other cultures, and even their views of what is important in their lives. We also know that no matter what their style of life, the environment has an effect on them and sometimes their actions have an effect on the land.

We invite you to learn how people have adjusted to the environment of the northern Great Plains and Prairies of North America. You will find out that even the first peoples were affected by the climate. We can learn from their lives. You will see that some of the same factors that influenced the lives of these ancient peoples still affect the lives of Plains people today. You will also see that the activities of the people who now live on the Plains sometimes are harmful to the very environment in which people live.

What are the Great Plains?

Find out a bit about the history, landscape, climate and biology of the Great Plains. What are the Great Plains? also has many links to other web sites.

First Peoples
10,000 BC

Dust Bowl
1930s

Crow Creek
1325 AD

The Future
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Teachers' Page

Information for teachers on the goals of this project and additional resources for the classroom about environments other than the Great Plains and Prairies.

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Return to Anthropology Resources Page

This web site is a unit of an educational project funded in part by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, Region VIII, 8PM-GAC. The principal investigator for the project is Todd Kapler, University of Colorado. Website design by Larry J. Zimmerman, University of Iowa. Additional materials by Shesh Mathur, University of Iowa. This site has been on line since 1 July, 1996. Since the counter was installed there have been 86,175 visitors to this site.