Cradleboard Mini Units

What Color is Corn?

This corn is red! Did you ever see red corn? What color is the corn you see most often?
Does red corn taste different? What other color corn have you seen?

Sometimes the people who grow colored corn dry it, and then they send it to the supermarket to be sold. Some people like to hang colorful dried corn on their doors in the fall. This is a sign of friendship, and tells visitors that they are welcome.

But just because colorful corn is pretty and lasts a long time doesn’t mean that it’s only for decoration.

Some kinds of colorful corn are delicious to eat, just like the kind that you are used to. There is a kind of pink corn that Hopi people grow to make special bread! They dry the corn and then they grind it very fine between two flat stones to make flour, sort of like the flour that you use when you make cake. The Hopi bakers add some water to the pink corn flour to make a thin batter. It’s much thinner than pancake batter. They heat a big flat rock with a fire. Then they pour out a little of the thin batter and cook a very thin crispy sheet of Piki bread... thinner than a potato chip! They stack the paper thin sheets of bread one on top of another, and when they have a nice little stack, they roll it up and store it, and it’s ready to eat for special occasions and also for medicine. The Hopis also make blue corn meal from their blue corn and use it for lots of delicious meals.

The Hopi people made Piki bread long, long ago, and they still make it now the very same way. Some Hopi people have electric stoves, and also still like to use the hot rocks to make their Piki bread. Many Native American people do things in two ways: traditional and modern. It’s fun that way and if the electricity goes off, everybody can still do okay.

Are there some things that you and your family choose to do in the old way, even though there are other choices? Like going camping and sleeping in a tent instead of in your regular house? How about playing outside instead of watching TV? How about growing food at home instead of always buying it from a store? Can you think of other examples? Please tell us so we can learn from you.

Squash: a Good Traveler

Squashes are amazing, and Native Americans have appreciated the squash plant for a long time. Indian people and were already growing squashes 8000 years ago in Mexico!

One of the best things about squash is that a squash IS its own suitcase!

When Indian people long ago traveled to someplace far away to trade, they would plant squashes along the way, so that whoever traveled that way next year would not go hungry.

When the traders got to where they were going, they could prepare a fresh squash to share for dinner, and then trade the seeds for something else to bring home.

In the winter, squashes keep long after everything else is gone.

Squashes come in all sizes from tiny to giant. Some are bumpy and others are smooth. They can be skinny, fat, long, round, or even shaped like a goose! Some squashes are multicolored; some have stripes; some are yellow, or orange, or white, or green, or beige, or even sort of pink!

Squashes also have a variety of different shapes. In being so different from one another, squashes are a lot like people!

Squashes are called one of the Three Sisters. Do you know who the other two are? How many of the Three Sisters do you see in the picture?

Some squashes have hard shells. Some of these are called gourds. You can dry these squashes for a long time, and when they are all hard and dry, if you shake the squash you can hear the dry seeds inside rattle. Some people use them for musical instruments. If you cut a dried squash in half, you can use it for a bowl or a dipper or a jar, depending on the shape of the squash.

The Mohawk children at Akwesasne Freedom School in the state of New York, right near Canada, know how to use and care for the squash plants. They are very fortunate to have good teachers who take time to teach the kids how to do things in a traditional Mohawk way. They learn how to speak their Mohawk language very well. They also speak English. One of the things the Mohawk teachers and children can share with you in the Cradleboard Teaching Project is how to make rattles from a squash, or even an old piece of cow horn.

Squashes have been on the planet for a long time, but they’re not all the same. They are useful in different ways. There are lots of kinds and colors. They get along with certain other plants in a special way.

FOODS PROJECT

What do we eat?
(Elementary and Middle School Grades)
Cradleboard Teaching Project students find out they know more about Native American foods than they thought they did.

Children are already familiar with most Native American foods but may not know it.
Native American people don't get much credit for having discovered, hybridized, cultivated and developed these wonderful foods so familiar to the rest of the world. Over half of what the world eats today was developed by pre-Columbian Native American people.
There are lots of exciting revelations to be found in learning about other cultures.
(Note: Foods are also covered in Cradleboard’s Science and Social Studies Core Curriculum)

Tell children that we are going to have some American Indian foods. Note their reactions. Do they expect something good and familiar? Or are they hesitant: “I don’t think I’m going to like it.”

Next, ask them to make a list of what Native American people ate before Columbus arrived.

Then lead them to a table (or a bulletin board). Ask the children to choose something from boxes in which you have put foods (or pictures of) Native American foods. They’ll probably be surprised.

Chocolate cranberries enchiladas maple sugar wild game dried fruits sunflowers	popcorn corn "trail mix" squash tapioca peppers chia (seeds)	peanuts sweet potatoes beans tamales manioc chilis pumpkins	vanilla pancakes white potatoes pemic-cahn (jerky) wild rice tortillas quinoa (grain) pineapple	turkey tomatoes maple syrup seaweeds watermelon chewing gum amaranth (grain) fish

Not Superstition

Just Practical

In ancient times just like today, not only were “things” traded, but also ideas. This is called “cultural diffusion”. A good idea is valuable and tends to last and to spread.

Some Europeans thought that Native American people were superstitious when they saw how Indian people planted their crops. We admit, unless you understood the reasoning, it may have looked strange. Can you picture some bewildered European observing from a distance, and seeing a Native American man or woman confidently doing the following things as the weeks go by:

Dig a hole.
Bury a dead fish in the bottom of the hole, and cover it up.
Plant corn on top of where the fish is buried.
When the corn comes up, plant beans very close to the corn sprout.
When the beans come up, plant squash next to the beans.

The observer might have thought we were superstitious or just plain silly.

However, there were, as usual, very practical reasons for Native American people to do things this way. The reason was so practical that the technique became widespread all over the world, as the idea proved to be excellent.

The fish provides the fertilizer that is still highly recommended in all the modern gardening books: fish emulsion is fantastic fertilizer!

Planting the corn first gives it a head start.

By the time the beans germinate, the corn has developed into a stalk, which becomes a “pole” for the beans to climb on their way to the sunshine they need.

The squash will spread all around the base of the Corn and Bean plants, providing shade for the roots, locking in moisture that dries out in the sun, and also keeping the weeds away.

Native American Inventions for Survival

Cradleboard Teaching Project teachers and students are provided with a wealth of accurate, enriching information about Native American culture and contributions to the world community. They are encouraged to think about the inventions made long, long ago by our ancient ancestors during and even before the Ice Age. None of us would even be here if it hadn’t been for:

their skills
their creativity
their ability to maintain community
their ‘oral tradition’ abilities to remember and pass on knowledge about survival.

Native American inventions are as awesome as those of other ancient peoples. Here’s some food for thought Cradleboard-style regarding inventions and developments made by western hemisphere people.

Rubber, tar, fertilizer, cotton, and the world’s most accurate calendar were discovered and used by Native peoples of the western hemisphere.

Inventions - like hammocks, toboggans, kayaks, cradleboards, the rubber bulb syringe, the threaded screw-top jar, step pyramids, mummies, and the marimba are Native American.

Agricultural developments - like the hybridizing, cultivation, and distribution of more than 2/3rds of the worlds favorite foods, was accomplished by Native American agriculturists.
(Click here for Foods project and list of Native American foods.)

Inventive ways of doing things, like using a huge bellows for Smelting silver and other metals; and the invention of amazing raft gardens that traveled America’s rivers and brought the crops along is credited to Native American people.

Procedures in science and medicine - like anesthetic, cranial surgery, the silver crowns used in dental work, the formula for aspirin, quinine, laxatives, ipecac, and echinacea are all credited specifically to Native American brains and skill.

(From the Cradleboard Teaching Project’s interactive multimedia CD Rom “Science: Through Native American Eyes”. )

Akwesasne Freedom School
RATTLES

There are various kinds of rattles. Gourd rattles are used only for ceremonial events. The original hickory bark rattle was probably the first kind of rattle that was made. It was used then and now for social as well as ceremonial purposes. Later the horn rattle was made, originally from the horns of the buffalo, but as the buffalo became scarce, the horns from the European cows replaced them. Horn rattles are used for both ceremonies and social fun dances.

Horn Rattles

How do you make a horn rattle? First you have to make a list of the tools and the material needed. The following is a complete list of the tools and materials necessary to make horn rattles. However, it is possible to make the rattle with only a jack knife, sand paper and a hand coping saw.

Tools needed	Materials needed
A jig saw or hand coping saw	Small stones or bb's
Drill and bits	Clear varnish
Jack knife	Soft wood (to close the ends of the horn)
Wood rasp	A hard wood stick, hickory or other hard wood for the handle
Sand Paper (medium and fine grade)	Wood glue
A draw knife	Stain (your choice)
Wood lathe
Hacksaw

The first thing is to select a cow horn that has a nice texture and your preferred colouring. Mark the horn the exact size you want. I recommend that the horn be cut at two and a half to three inches long. Once the horn is marked, take your saw and be sure to cut very straight. Try to cut the top and the bottom parallel to one another. If the horn seems too thick, you can thin it out. You may use a knife, and if it doesn't thin out easily then I would try to soak it in very warm water for about half an hour and then use the knife. The warm water will soften the horn. If your horn is thin it produces a better sound. Approximately one eighth of an inch is most desirable for the thickness of the horn.

When you have the horn cut, thinned and exactly the way you want it, place the horn onto a piece of soft wood (pine or spruce) and trace the outside and the inside of both the horn's ends. Then use your jig saw to cut along the outer trace marks. Again with your coping saw cut along the side or the edge of the wood about a quarter to three-eighths of an inch. Then, using your knife or wood chisel, cut along the second trace line until the wood chips off. Follow this same process for both bottom and top wood caps.

Place the wood caps into the openings of the horn and if they don't fit properly, then remove and do some more carving and replace until it fits. Next take the wood caps and drill a quarter of an inch hole in the center of both the top and bottom wood caps. The handle will go through these holes in the center to attach itself to the wood caps; and the wood caps will become attached to the horn. You may also use wood glue once you place the wood caps in. When the glue dries, drill holes into the horn and into the wood ends and then place wood pegs in the horn and the wood cap to hold the wood cap firmly in place. This is done to both the bottom and top wood caps. You may put the wood pegs in approximately one inch apart.

The handle is carved with whatever style you wish. Usually it is best to use hard wood for your handle. The top part of the handle will be carved with a one quarter of an inch diameter stem. The length of the stem will be half an inch to one whole inch longer than the length of the horn. Cut the stems' excess off after you have drilled a hole through the stem exactly above the top wood cap. You then place a wood peg completely through the stem with an overhang enough to prevent your handle from moving or sliding. The next step is to take the bb's or pebbles and place them into the hole of the wood caps. Anywhere from twenty to thirty bb's will be enough. You can put more in if you want, it depends what sound you like best. Now insert the handle into the bottom and then into the top wood cap, making sure you have a very tight fit. You can at this point use wood glue. If you wish, you may stain the handle and when it dries you can varnish your entire rattle. Usually three coats of varnish is used. After each varnishing make sure that it is completely dried before you sand it with fine sandpaper. This will give a beautiful shine to your rattle. You should now have a very beautiful Iroquois rattle.

This guide was taken from the book "DRUM & RATTLE MAKING",
produced by The North American Indian Traveling College. c. 1993
Used by permission

Written by Tom Porter
Illustrations by Brad Bonaparte
Photos by the Akwesasne Freedom School

Baskets and Pots: So What?

Q. What’s the big deal about baskets and pots? A. Baskets and pots can be tools for survival. The weaving of waterproof, bugproof, weatherproof baskets, and the making of ceramic pottery by artisans all over the world are survival skills that changed people’s lives. They are not only beautiful and fun to make, but these two items, properly made, can make the difference between life and death to cultures who live off the land. Why?

Medicines, grains, and especially seeds are very important to human survival. People have to be able protect seed from season to season, from place to place, and from one generation to another.

Ancient people got their seeds from 3 sources:

1. wild plants

2. farming their own plants

3. trading with other Native American people far away.

They used the seeds to plant new crops, and to trade with new friends. They also used some seeds as cereal and snacks and ground them into flour for bread and other foods.

Once the ancient people could protect the seed, grains, flour and foods from animals and the weather, they could do two important new things:

They could travel more safely, since they knew that their seeds could survive the journey to a new home.

They could also settle down to a farming way of life and develop towns and cities, instead of having to hunt and gather all the time for food.

Thoughts about Survival

Native American people developed the atlatl to hunt huge mastodons that were bigger than an elephant. Could you and your family do it if you had to in order to survive today? Could you build the tools to kill such a huge animal, and would your family be able to cut up and process the meat in ways that would be safe? Could you make an atlatl?

http://www.shelter-systems.com/pt-spearthrower.html
http://www.wco.com/~holodeck/spear.html

Baskets and Pots - so what? If there were no game to eat, would you be prepared to survive a cold winter? Would you know how to protect seed for springtime planting, even if there were floods, and animals that also want to eat the seed? Somebody was the first one to build a pot or a waterproof basket, and we don’t know who those persons were; but their inventiveness made it possible for ancient Native American people to preserve seed and dried foods, as well as to boil tough vegetables which increased food supply, and the ability of human beings to survive. (Click here to see Baskets and Pots a supplement about of the value of baskets and pots to the development of early Native American societies. From the Cradleboard Social Studies and Geography units supplements for teachers, grades 3-12.)

Somebody invented the techniques of harnesses and dog sleds; someone invented snow shoes; and “Inuit sunglasses” that made it possible to hunt and survive in the glare of ice. (Get the Cradleboard interactive multimedia CD Rom “Science: Through Native American Eyes”. The FRICTION section has a movie, information, websites and quiz about Dog Sleds.)

Native American planting techniques If you had to survive in the wild, would you know what to eat, how, when, and where to plant crops, how to fertilize them, and how to hybridize them for better yield? European pilgrims thought that Native American planting techniques were based on superstition, but actually they were based on effective agricultural principles that now are used worldwide. (Click here to see Not Superstitious but Practical, included as a supplement to Cradleboard’s science curricula.)

What would you need to invent in order to survive in America without today’s stores? How would you protect your feet, and how would you keep warm? Native American people were weaving sandals out of plant fibers, making tough waterproof moccasins, gloves, and other clothing without which people may die; and somebody was the first one to do it. How would you make these things 10,000 years ago? (Cradleboard participating classes discuss these and other interesting topics with their cross cultural partner classes in Live Chat sessions.)

Lodges for survival: If you had nothing but what you find in Nature, could your family build effective year round housing? What if you needed an ax, a saw, a needle? What if you needed a wrench? Native American people built these tools, and somebody figured out how to do something better: what was needed and how to create it. (Get the Cradleboard interactive multimedia CD Rom “Science: Through Native American Eyes”. The LODGES section has five movies, information, interactive exercises and quizzes about Native American housing.)

Games and musical instruments: What if you had to make all your own toys, games, and musical instruments? Ancient people did. (Get the Cradleboard interactive multimedia CD Rom “Science: Through Native American Eyes”. The SOUND section has movies, information, music, interactive exercises and quizzes about Native American musical instruments. The FRICTION section has a movie, information, animated interactive game and quiz about a Native American winter game called Snow Snake.)

Geography Native American style: How did anybody know where they were going when they needed to travel? How could people remember all the knowledge passed down to them by their ancestors, which included such things as recipes for medicines, celestial navigation memory charts, the location of rivers, mountains, game trails, and human communities thousands of miles away? (Cradleboard Teaching Project students learn the answers in our Geography units for High School and Middle School grades.)

Traditional Native American health and medicines: If you were living thousands of years ago in America, would you be able to treat illnesses, bring down fevers, set bones, and do surgery? What would you use for tools? Native American people were using anesthetic, and doing successful surgery using tools made from crystal, obsidian, and metals a thousand years ago. (Cradleboard Teaching Project High School students learn more in our Science unit.)

Little Extras