Editor Barbara M. Wally, M.S. Editorial Manager Karen Goldfluss, M.S. Ed. Editor-in-Chief Sharon Coan, M.S. Ed. GRADES 4-8 Illustrator Bruce Hedges Cover Artist Sue Fullam Art Coordinator Denice Adorno Creative Director Elayne Roberts Imaging James Edward Grace Product Manager Phil Garcia Publisher Mary D. Smith, M.S. Ed. Authors Ellen Kronowitz and Barbara Wally Contributions by Susan Anderson, Susan Hicks, Gretchen Jacobs, Julie Manker, Susan Manker, Barbara L. McMullin, Julie Lynn Ohrt, and Ann Pearson Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 6421 Industry Way Westminster, CA 92683 www.teachercreated.com ISBN: 978-1-57690-590-6 2000 Teacher Created Resources, Inc. Reprinted, 2009 Made in U.S.A. The classroom teacher may reproduce copies of materials in this book for classroom use only. The reproduction of any part for an entire school or school system is strictly prohibited. No part of this publication may be transmitted, stored, or recorded in any form without written permission from the publisher.
Table of Contents Introduction.................................................................... 3 Background Information Cultural Areas About This Book Cultural Areas Map.............................................................. 7 The Iroquois.................................................................... 8 Facts About the Iroquois The Iroquois Confederacy Wampum Belts Bandolier Bag The First Folk Tales Strawberry Drink At Home in a Long House Twined Cornhusk Basket The Cheyenne.................................................................. 24 Facts About the Cheyenne Where the Buffalo Roam How the Buffalo Hunt Began Cheyenne Story Paintings The Cheyenne Tepee Making a Tepee and Buckskin Paper Parfleche Making Jerky Beaded Arm Bands Wood-Gathering Game The Hopi...................................................................... 36 Facts About the Hopi Spinning Yarn Build a Hopi Home Building a Pueblo How the Great Chiefs Made the Moon and the Sun Kachinas Make a Kachina Mask Blue Marbles for Breakfast Shuttlecock The Zuni...................................................................... 48 Facts About the Zuni Zuni Poetry Fetishes The Raven and the Macaw Kachina Doll Coiled Pottery Turquoise Jewelry Green Chili Stew Kick Stick The Navajo.................................................................... 59 Facts About the Navajo The Hogan Navajo Weaving Sand Painting Sand Painting Designs At the Rainbow s End God s Eye Navajo Fry Bread Hoop and Stick Game The Chumash.................................................................. 72 Facts About the Chumash A Chumash Village Rattles The Rainbow Bridge Pictograph Autobiographies Sunflower Cakes The Four-Stick Game The Maya..................................................................... 81 Facts About the Maya A Mayan Mask Making Paper A Codex Glyph Patterns Rabbit and Coyote Math the Mayan Way Mayan Numbers Mayan Murals Tell a Story Calendar Round Long Count Dates Selected References.............................................................. 94 Technology Resources............................................................ 95 #2590 Native American Arts and Cultures 2 Teacher Created Resources, Inc.
Facts About the Iroquois Iroquois is a name given to a group of separate tribes that lived in the area now called New York. They all spoke a language that was very different from the Algonquin language of their neighbors, but they had similar cultures. They called themselves Haudenosaunee, which means people of the long house. These tribes also shared a tradition of warfare that centered on taking prisoners. The prisoners could be used as slaves and eventually adopted into the captor s society or, more often, sacrificed. Because of their reputation as fierce warriors, the neighboring tribes called them the iriakoiw, an Algonquian word that meant rattlesnakes. The Iroquois people moved from time to time, and they used fire to clear land for crops and to keep the forests open. The Iroquois tribes were divided into clans. There were 10 clans, each named for the animal considered to be the clan members original ancestor. Members of these clans were related throughout the different Iroquois tribes. Members of each clan lived together in the same long house. A dozen or more family groups might share a single long house. The families lived in compartments on either side of a central aisle and shared a central hearth with the family opposite of them. Some long houses reached 400 feet (122 m) in length. The door to the house always faced east. The long house was the center of life and was headed by a woman who settled all disputes. A husband generally moved into the long house of his wife s clan, where the senior clan mother held sway. Each family was traced through the woman s family. A woman who was a member of the Turtle Clan had children who were Turtle Clan. The mothers arranged marriages for all children. Marriages were not allowed among members of the same clan. Elders were highly respected, and children were beloved by tribe members. Roles were very defined between the men and women in the tribes. Women had a voice in picking the sachems (chiefs). Each tribe sent many sachems to the great council at the Onondaga Nation. Even though there were many different sachems from each tribe, each tribe only had one vote at the great council. The men and women of a tribe could impeach their sachem if after three warnings he did not vote as they wished during Nation meetings. The Iroquois were farmers and hunters. The women grew corn, squash, and beans. The men hunted deer, rabbits, and black bears. They also fished a great deal. The Iroquois people called corn, beans, and squash the Three Sisters. These three vegetables were the main food supply of the Iroquois. The Iroquois believed that these plants, which sustained their physical and spiritual life, were given to the people when all three miraculously sprouted from the body of Sky Woman s daughter, granting the gift of agriculture to the Iroquois. Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 9 #2590 Native American Arts and Cultures
Facts About the Iroquois (cont.) All Iroquois men and women had knowledge of simple remedies for healing. The old women of the tribe were called on when someone needed special attention. These old women often set broken bones and did minor surgery. When someone was seriously ill, the Iroquois believed it was evil spirits that caused this. The false face society, whose members were unknown to all but the other members were a secret healing society. The Iroquois had many ceremonies that showed respect for the earth around them. There were six main ceremonies for the planting and harvesting of their crops of corn, squash, and beans. The most important ceremony for the Iroquois was the condolence ceremony when someone died. Iroquois women wore a wraparound skirt. Men wore a breechclout, or breechcloth, and narrow leggings. The Iroquois decorated their clothes with moose hair, glass beads, and ribbons using special designs. The Iroquois enjoyed social dancing and singing. All members of the tribes played games. The Mohawk and the Iroquois tribes invented the game of lacrosse. Girls played with cornhusk dolls. Wampum belts, made of white and purple shells, were used by the Iroquois to help remember special events or to remember the Great Laws of the Council. There were specially trained members of each tribe to read the wampum belts. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Iroquois began trading with Europeans. In exchange for furs, Iroquois men brought home a wealth of useful trade goods, especially metal items such as guns, axes, knives, hoes, cooking pots, needles, scissors, and nails. When the Iroquois exhausted their own supply of beaver about 1800, they formed trade alliances with the Dutch and later with the English. The Iroquois became middlemen in the fur trade, regulating the flow of furs coming from the western tribes to the traders in the east. The Iroquois looked for trading partners among the European colonists. In general, they sided with the British, while their Algonquin rivals took the side of the French. For the first half of the eighteenth century, the Iroquois Confederacy successfully kept both the French and the British from controlling the Ohio River Valley. This balance of power lasted until 1754. During the War of Independence, the members of the Iroquois Confederacy at first attempted to remain neutral. Slowly, however, they were pulled into the conflict between Britain and the colonists. Each tribe was free to choose whom to support. The Oneida and Tuscarora generally supported the Americans. Persuaded by the British who emphasized that a British defeat would put the Native Americans at the mercy of the settlers, the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Seneca sided with England. The resulting split in loyalty crippled the Iroquois Confederacy as an effective force. #2590 Native American Arts and Cultures 10 Teacher Created Resources, Inc.
The Iroquois Confederacy Culture Clues The Mohawk, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, and Seneca tribes lived in large fortified villages in the area now known as northeastern New York. They all spoke Iroquoian languages and had similar cultures. They also shared a tradition of warfare that centered on taking prisoners and either adopting them into the captor s society or, more often, sacrificing them. These Native American nations might have destroyed each other eventually, but around the sixteenth century A.D. (dates and details differ in tribal traditions), the rival Iroquois-speaking tribes formed a political confederation. After that time, leaders from each tribe met regularly in a ceremonial long house, where they negotiated their differences and agreed upon policies for the near future. According to legend, the Master of Life selected a Huron holy man named Deganwidah, the Peacemaker, to remind the people of his command that all people should live in peace and harmony. The first person Deganwidah encountered was Hiawatha, a Mohawk clan leader who had lost all his daughters to tribal strife. After he consoled Hiawatha, the holy man described a great Tree of Peace under whose branches the tribes would meet to resolve their differences. He spoke of principles of justice and equality and explained that bloodshed would be replaced by a new sense of brotherhood among the people. Inspired by Deganwidah s powerful vision, Hiawatha joined him. Hiawatha had a gift for oratory and persuasion. The two men traveled the length and breadth of Iroquois country, forging alliances, teaching the Great Law of Justice, and sharing the vision of the Tree of Peace. The result was the Iroquois Confederacy. The Five Nations that entered the Confederacy retained full control over their own affairs, but the Grand Council debated matters of mutual importance like peace and war. In addition, the tribes agreed to share food and resources to assist each other in times of a lean harvest so that no one would go hungry. The Grand Council met periodically on a hilltop at Onondaga. Fifty chiefs selected from each tribe by its leading older women (the clan mothers) attended the first meeting. Each tribe had one vote, and decisions were always unanimous. It usually required a lengthy discussion to reach a consensus because no one was obliged to accept a conclusion with which he did not agree. The number of chiefs at the council later dropped to 49 because no one was deemed worthy of filling the seat originally occupied by Hiawatha. The Iroquois conceived of their confederacy as a great long house stretching from the Mohawk Valley almost to the Pennsylvania border in the west. In it, the five tribes gathered around five fires. The Mohawk guarded the eastern side; to their west were the Oneida; then the Onondaga, who tended the central hearth; following them were the Cayuga; and then the powerful Seneca, keepers of the western door. Runners in moccasins carried messages between the tribes. The Iroquois Trail spanned the length of what is now upstate New York and provided easy access to any part of the long house. Teacher Created Resources, Inc. 11 #2590 Native American Arts and Cultures
The Iroquois Confederacy (cont.) Not all of the Iroquois-speaking nations joined the confederacy. There was still warfare, especially with Algonquin tribes, but the Iroquois Confederacy ended much of the feuding between related tribes. The combined strength and political base of the confederacy made it dominant in shaping the history of the northeastern region. As Europeans tried to claim territory in North America, alliances were formed with native people. The French allied themselves with the Hurons and other Algonquin-speaking tribes, while the Iroquois Confederacy turned first to the Dutch, then to the English. Intertribal warfare continued until the 1690s. Ambassadors from France then invited representatives of many different tribes to gather in friendship and peace. The Iroquois councils deliberated for two years, seeking advice from their English patrons and working in an unhurried manner to arrive at a consensus. Finally, they decided to accept the proposed French accord. Proclaiming their neutrality in 1701, the Iroqouis made peace. Iroquois chiefs convened at Onondaga. They revised the confederacy s earlier policy and made peace with their Indian enemies. They then traveled to Albany and Montreal, entering into additional peace treaties with the English and French. From that time, the Iroquois would remain neutral in the wars of their European neighbors. It was a wise decision. Their strategic location allowed them to play the colonial rivals against each other. The people of the long house once again held the balance of power in the Northeast. The Confederacy could be extended to shelter other peoples. In 1722 an Iroquois-speaking tribe, the Tuscarora, migrated north and was soon accepted as the sixth member of the confederacy. As other refugees filtered into Iroquois country during the eighteenth century, they were accepted and given the protection of the Tree of Peace. A young journalist named Benjamin Franklin made a study of the Iroquois system. He discovered a fine working example of representative democracy with an unwritten constitution that spelled out checks and balances, rules of procedure, limits of power, and stressed individual liberty. Deeply impressed, he drew up a scheme to join the thirteen American colonies in a similar confederation, and called it the Albany Plan. For several decades, Franklin s proposal was ignored. Then, in Philadelphia, the delegates turned to its provisions. Much of the final Constitution came to reflect Iroquois ideals. So, too, did an important piece of national symbolism: the American eagle. According to tribal lore, the first meeting of the Iroquois Confederacy took place under a giant evergreen tree where an eagle perched, its eyes scanning the horizon for signs of approaching trouble. An eagle holding six arrows, one for each of the six nations, was a symbol of the Confederacy. Like the majestic bird that guards the Iroquois Tree of Peace, the American eagle stands for unity and power. The United States eagle grasps 13 arrows, a reminder of its 13 original member states. Activities Discuss how the ideals of the Iroquois Confederacy are similar to or different from the current government of the United States. Extension The Illinois people also formed a confederacy. Research their confederacy and compare it to the Iroquois Confederacy and to the United States government. #2590 Native American Arts and Cultures 12 Teacher Created Resources, Inc.