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The Great Plains Facts & Worksheets

The Great Plains, a broad expanse of flatlands in Northern America

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Spanning more than 180 million acres and crossing five U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, the Northern Great Plains are as large as California and Nevada combined. The short- and mixed-grass prairie is one of the world’s only remaining intact temperate grasslands.

See the fact file below for more information on the Great Plains or alternatively, you can download our 33-page Great Plains worksheet pack to utilize within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

HISTORY

  • In Pre-European times, the Great Plains were known as the place for bison and Native American tribes, such as the Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne Arapaho, Comanche, and many others. The Eastern parts were inhabited by tribes that lived in semi-permanent villages of earth lodges, such as the Arikara, Mandan, Pawnee, and Wichita.
  • The first Europeans arrived on the Great Plains in 1540, when a Spanish conquistador named Francisco Vásquez de Coronado traveled in Texas, Kansas, and Nebraska from 1540-1542.
  • The American Homestead Act of 1862 allowed immigrants to claim up to 160 acres (65 hectares) of land as long as they lived on it for five years and cultivated it. 
  • It was later expanded under the Kinkaid Act, which included a homestead of an entire section.
  • By the late 1920s and early 1930s, the region roughly centered on the Oklahoma Panhandle, including south-eastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, the Texas Panhandle, and extreme north-eastern New Mexico, was known as the Dust Bowl.
  • Due to drought and the effects of the Great Depression, many farmers were forced off the land throughout the Great Plains.
  • By the 1950s, many areas of the Great Plains had become productive crop-growing areas because of the extensive irrigation from the Ogallala Aquifer, which lies over the southern portion of the Great Plains.

NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES

  • Native Americans were the first people to settle on the Great Plains.
  • Roughly 9 million acres of the Northern Great Plains’ ecoregion are managed by tribes today, much of which is rich in biodiversity and astoundingly beautiful.
  • Most of the tribal communities in the Great Plains can see a unique cultural and spiritual significance to sustaining the grasslands and restoring wildlife.
  • The Native American inhabitants came from different clans or tribes. The major tribes among them are Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Comanche, Cheyenne, Crow, Gros Ventre, Hidatsa, Ioway, Kaw, Kiowa, Kitsai, Missouria, Mandan, Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Plains Ojibwe, Plains Apache, Ponca, Quapaw, Sarcee, Sioux, Stoney, Tonkawa, and Wichita.
  • In about 1100 CE, the Great Plains were sparsely populated until Native American groups, including the Pawnees, Mandans, Omahas, Wichitas, Cheyennes, and other groups started to inhabit the area.
  • Around 900 CE, Plains Native Americans planted beans, squash, and corn, also known as the three sisters.
  • The Plains inhabitants also harvested plants, such as chokecherries (a cure for stomach sickness)  for medicinal purposes.
  • Women of the tribes farmed and gathered while the men hunted.
  • In the 1300s, when a drought struck, hunting became a more dominant practice.
  • The Plains Natives started hunting large animals as early as 12,000 BCE.
  • Using large spears with Clovis points at the end, they practiced a mixture of agriculture and hunting on foot.
  • Archaeologists have estimated that a spear with a Clovis point at the end could kill animals the size of African elephants, with that idea, the Plains Natives used these two-centimeter spear points to hunt massive animals like mammoths, buffalo, and bison.
  • Horses did not arrive in North America until 1519 when they were first introduced by the Spanish explorer Hernán Cortés. 
  • Cortés also brought 600 horses to the region during his expeditions. Later, Coronado and Oñate would bring more.
  • In the 1600s, with horses becoming more widely available, the Lakotas and Cheyennes gave up agriculture altogether in order to become nomadic buffalo hunters.
  • Plains Native Americans would set up sedentary bases in earth lodges in earlier, more agrarian societies.
  • Highly agrarian groups, such as the Wichitas, built grass homes near their crops.
  • In the eastern part of The Plains, the Hidatsa and Mandan people cultivated maize (corn) and established trade networks along the Mississippi River.
  • The Hidatsa and Mandan made bull boats by stretching bison skin over a wooden frame to trade goods along the rivers. They traded intricate baskets and leather for metal and furs from the Northeast.
  • As the Plains Natives began to focus more on hunting, they became more nomadic and constructed teepees (tents made out of buffalo skin and wood) shelters that were easy to put up and take down, especially if a band was following a buffalo herd for hunting.
  • Plains Natives sometimes lived a combination of nomadic and sedentary lifestyles: in spring, they would plant crops and establish villages; in summer, they hunted; in fall, they harvested their crops; and lastly, they would hunt once again in winter.
  • The hunting-agrarian groups were mostly divided at the level of the band. These could consist of a dozen to a few hundred people who lived, hunted and traveled together.
  • Every group of Plains Natives had its own practices, and with that, it is nearly impossible to generalize their religious traditions.
  • Rituals often revolved around the sun and nature, with the Earth as the mother of all spirits.
  • For example, the Cheyennes would perform the Sun Dance, which forced people to sacrifice something personal for communal benefit.
  • While the Lakotas believed that certain individuals were blessed to be spiritual leaders or men of medicine.
  • Plains Natives regarded the buffalo and their migration patterns as sacred.
  • When horses were introduced to the Plains Natives, they became less egalitarian; men with the most number of horses had the most political impact, social status, and economic power.
  • As the settlers arrived, mainly the Europeans, the Sioux tribe, in particular, began to trade with them. In exchange for buffalo robes, blankets, and beads, the Sioux tribe would receive guns.
  • With the groups stealing each others’ horses for economic gain and glory, intertribal conflict increased due to this heightened competition.
  • Thus began a pattern of violence between the Native American groups and Euro-American colonists as they settled across the Plains during the centuries to come.

GEOGRAPHY

  • Running 500 miles from east to west and over 3,000 miles from north to south, this area of North America is extensive.
  • The region lies between the Rocky Mountains (west) and the Appalachian Plateau (east). While in the south, the state of Texas marks the southernmost reaches of the Great Plains.
  • It covers a portion or even the entirety of 10 U.S. states: Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, South and North Dakota, and Montana.
  • At the same time, it continues into the three provinces of Canada: Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
  • The elevation begins just above sea level in the state of Texas in the southern region. With continuity of the gradual rise northwards to heights over 5,000 feet above sea level.
  • The western regions of the Great Plains tend to be higher than the eastern regions due to the neighboring Rocky Mountains.
  • Because it stretches over two countries, the Great Plains consists of two ecosystems: the plains and the prairies.
  • The Great Plains in the United States are mainly just plains. Because they are on the leeward side of the Rocky Mountains, it is primarily flat and dry.
  • The Rocky Mountains act as a natural barrier for most storms and precipitation, making the Great Plains an arid region overall. 
  • To support the growth of crops on the Great Plains, advanced irrigation and water drainage techniques were placed.
  • While in Canada, the Great Plains are commonly referred to as prairie land, which means that the area is wetter than the plains making it more naturally suitable for agriculture.

FAUNA AND FLORA

  • Often referred to as the American Serengeti, the Great Plains, which are 400 million acres, and stretches from Canada to Mexico, once had an abundance of wildlife unmatched in North America.
  • The symbiotic relationship between the wildlife and the grasslands is what makes the Great Plains so unique.
  • Grazers, such as elk, pronghorn, deer, and bison feed on the deep-rooted perennial grasses that keep the deep soil intact.
  • Prairie dogs prefer the lands grazed by bison for their colonies, and in return, they provide the prey base for many predators, including black-footed ferrets, hawks, eagles, badgers, and swift foxes.
  • While grassland birds, such as the mountain plovers and the burrowing owls, nest in the prairie dog colonies.
  • These intricate wildlife connections provide for a healthy Great Plains environment.
  • The Great Plains’ flora is dominated by perennial herbs, plants that die back to the roots each winter then regrow in the spring.
  • Over 2,900 species of vascular plants from some 730 genera in 159 families grow in the Great Plains; the vast majority are angiosperms (flowering plants).
  • The Great Plains has one of the most stressful climates for plants: hot summers, cold winters, and frequent droughts, with dramatic seasonal and annual variation.
  • The plants that dominate the region are herbaceous grasses and forbs (wildflowers) derived from the plant families of temperate regions rather than trees or plants from families of tropical regions.
  • Trees are abundant on the edges of the region and in the larger river valleys of the Eastern Plains.
  • Beyond these areas, trees and shrubs, because they are more injured by prairie fires than herbs, were historically found only in areas protected from fire, such as near the cliffs or on islands, and at bends in rivers.
  • A few shrubs, like the lead plant (Amorpha canescens), survive well within the open grasslands. Others, such as sumac (Rhus) and dogwoods (Cornus), rapidly increase on the unburned prairie.

THE FUTURE OF THE GREAT PLAINS

  • The Great Plains are known to be the most threatened, most altered, and protected area in North America today.
  • Modern changes threaten the wildlife and the land on the Plains.
  • The demand for agricultural commodities and new, drought-resistant bioengineered crops encourage the degradation of the native grasslands. This increases incentives to till the land while draining waterways and watersheds.
  • Other threats include poor wildlife management practices, with the states and federal agencies often disregarding the risk of keystone species in favor of the extractive uses of the land.
  • The North American Grasslands Conservation Act of 2022 was introduced in the Senate.
  • The Act will create a voluntary program to conserve and restore threatened grasslands ecosystem; renew efforts to reverse the massive grassland loss and conserve the remaining ones.
  • It will enable landowners and Native nations to ensure that healthy grasslands remain for future generations.

The Great Plains Worksheets

This fantastic bundle includes everything you need to know about The Great Plains across 33 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets about The Great Plains, a broad expanse of flatlands in Northern America.

Complete list of included worksheets:

  • The Great Plains Facts 
  • Time Travel
  • Word Hunt
  • Plains and Prairies
  • Pin it Down
  • Name the Silhouette
  • Fix the Word
  • Write Up
  • Past or Future
  • Feature the Plains
  • The Native American Way

Frequently Asked Questions

What is unique about the Great Plains?

Often hailed as the American Serengeti, the 400 million acres of land stretching from Canada to Mexico that makes up the Great Plains are a marvel. Home to an impressive collection of species unmatched in North America, this region boasts a unique interdependence between wildlife and grasslands – making it truly one-of-a-kind.

How old are the Great Plains?

In a time distant past, spanning back to over one billion years ago during the Precambrian Era, our Great Plains were formed as several small continents merged into what would later be known as North America.

How many people live in the Great Plains?

The Northern Great Plains population jumped significantly in 2019, reaching 1.1 million- an 8.3% increase since 2010 – far exceeding the nation’s overall growth of 6.3%. However, when breaking down this data further, we can discern various patterns emerging from the region’s total

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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