- Sioux
Beginning in the 1680s, bands of western Sioux swept through the northern plains, gradually controlling land from present-day Minnesota all the way west to the head of Yellowstone River. Sioux hunting parties followed the buffalo migration during the summer and then moved to woodland areas to trap beaver. In the spring, they traveled east to French trading villages and fairs, where they acquired guns, ammunition, and horses that secured their military dominance. Western Sioux gradually incorporated European horses into their hunting and fighting in the first half of the 18th century, but guns and ammunition quickly shifted political relations between western Sioux and their neighbors.