Lesson Y8-U07-L01

The Plains Indians A Way of Life Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 13

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y8-U07-L01, The Plains Indians A Way of Life: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 13: Year 8: The Wild West, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What term describes a group of people who move from place to place instead of settling?

    • Urban
    • Agricultural
    • Nomadic
    • Sedentary

  2. What was the traditional tall, cone-shaped tent used by Plains Indians called?

    • Wigwam
    • Tepee
    • Yurt
    • Longhouse

  3. What name did Plains Indians give to the spiritual power living in all things?

    • Great Hunter
    • Earth Mother
    • Sky Father
    • Great Spirit

  4. What was a small group of Plains Indian families who lived and hunted together called?

    • Band
    • Nation
    • Clan
    • Tribe

  5. What dismissive name did 19th-century European explorers give to the Great Plains?

    • Empty Wasteland
    • Wild Frontier
    • Indian Territory
    • Great American Desert

  6. About how many buffalo are estimated to have roamed the Great Plains?

    • About 30 million
    • About 300,000
    • About 3 million
    • About 300 million

  7. About how many different Native American nations lived on the Great Plains?

    • Around 3
    • Around 10,000
    • Around 30
    • Around 300

  8. What was dried buffalo dung commonly used for by Plains Indians?

    • Building bricks
    • Arrow poison
    • Fuel for fires
    • Tanning leather

  9. What animal part did Plains Indians use to make tough bowstrings and sewing thread?

    • Buffalo horn
    • Buffalo bone
    • Buffalo hide
    • Buffalo sinew

  10. About how long could a tepee be taken down and carried to the next camp?

    • About one week
    • About one day
    • About ten minutes
    • About one hour

  11. Who owned, made, put up and took down the tepees?

    • The children
    • The men
    • The women
    • The chief

  12. Why did Plains Indians live in portable shelters rather than fixed houses?

    • Frequent floods
    • Following moving herds
    • Religious laws
    • Lack of stone

  13. Why did Plains Indians believe that land could never be privately owned?

    • Land was sacred
    • Chiefs owned everything
    • Land was limitless
    • Laws forbade it

  14. What geometric shape did Plains Indians use to represent the cycle of life?

    • Rectangle
    • Triangle
    • Square
    • Circle

  15. Which specific Plains group viewed the earth as sacred and shared by all?

    • Apache
    • Navajo
    • Cherokee
    • Sioux

  16. How did many US government officials view unfarmed land on the Plains in the 1870s?

    • National park
    • Wasted unless farmed
    • Indian sanctuary
    • Sacred wilderness

  17. How did Plains Indians ensure they did not waste the resources of their land?

    • Building fences
    • Farming crops
    • Taking only needs
    • Storing grain

  18. Which part of the buffalo was used by Plains Indians to make tepee covers and clothes?

    • Its bones
    • Its horns
    • Its skull
    • Its hide

  19. Why did Plains Indians refer to the buffalo as a walking supermarket?

    • Provided multiple resources
    • Farmed the land
    • Traded for money
    • Walked very slowly

  20. By what standard did outsiders wrongly judge the Great Plains as empty land?

    • Urban standards
    • Industrial standards
    • Mining standards
    • Farming standards

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