<P> Apart from making homes, women had many additional tasks that were also essential for the survival of the tribes . They made weapons and tools, took care of the roofs of their homes and often helped their men hunt bison . In some of the Plains Indian tribes, medicine women gathered herbs and cured the ill . </P> <P> The Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota girls were encouraged to learn to ride, hunt and fight . Though fighting was mostly left to the boys and men, occasionally women fought with them, especially if the tribe was severely threatened . </P> <P> Native American leisure time led to competitive individual and team sports . Jim Thorpe, Joe Hipp, Notah Begay III, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Billy Mills are well known professional athletes . </P> <P> Native American ball sports, sometimes referred to as lacrosse, stickball, or baggataway, was often used to settle disputes, rather than going to war, as a civil way to settle potential conflict . The Choctaw called it isitoboli ("Little Brother of War"); the Onondaga name was dehuntshigwa'es ("men hit a rounded object"). There are three basic versions, classified as Great Lakes, Iroquoian, and Southern . </P>

The focus of native american tribes centered around