Did Native Americans make use of the wheel?

by kwajperson14

I picture them riding horses and planting crops by hand.

SmokeyBear81

Not for transportation purposes. Horses were not introduced to the Native Americans until the Spanish arrived and were not largely incorporated into any of their societies until 1680-1740. The animals used for transport were pack dogs that used sleds referred to as travois.

ldvhl

There is also an answer here (http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1aggse/the_native_americans_and_several_other_cultures/?sort=top), as this is among one of the frequently asked questions on this subreddit.

Gargatua13013

Some of the plains Indians (Pawnee, Omaha, Blackfoot, etc.) used wheel-like devices for entertainment and as a game in variants of hoop rolling, They would also send a hoop rolling along and use it for target pratice, either for spear or arrow. In some instances, such would become a game of skill, where prizes were awarded depending on the outcome. The Inuit also had a variant of this practice.

See:

  • Indian Games By Andrew McFarland Davis; p44-56

  • Sports and games of the ancients By Steve Craig; p181

  • International Traditional Games Society. Indian Education for All - Traditional Games Unit (Revised 2013 ed.). Montana Office of Public Instruction.

  • Travels in North America, Volume 2, By Sir Charles Augustus Murray; p19

However, the wheel was not adapted to transportation.