Middle Woodland Culture
Middle woodland native culture is a topic of great variety, many people and therefore has an abundance of information relating to it. For this paper’s purpose, the native culture from the Middle woodland time frame that will be focused on will be the Iroquoian peoples. The Iroquois people will be highlighted as they have tendencies to deviate from the traditional Iroquoian peoples. The similarities and differences between the groups will be examined. I believe that the Iroquoian people and the Iroquois will show great similarities. They are close enough in terms of geography and climate that the materials available to each are quite similar. And they are very close in terms of language and lifestyle therefore their culture could be also very similar.
~ Tools and Material for tools ~
Tools for the Hunt/War
The Iroquoian natives of the Niagara Escarpment for the most part used stone and some wood tools. Tools for the hunt consisted of a marriage of sorts of wood and stone tools. Stone arrowheads (chipped stone, side-notched) and spearheads made primarily of chert (Crawford Lake 2000) were attached to the ends of wooden shafts to make either a projectile weapon or a spear. Knives of chert were also used not only in warfare but killing animals and helping to butcher them.
Everyday Tools
The stone material they used for fashioning their tools was primarily chert . They had axes for chopping, scrappers for smoothing, spearheads, drills and knives for shaping from chert, (chipped stone, side-notched) which is a natural resource in the Niagara region. In addition to stone, they also used bone tools, such as awls. Wedges, canoe ribs, basket handles, bows, ladles, arrow shafts and spear shafts were among everyday wooden tools used by the Iroquoian people and were all fashioned out of wood. Containers for various other materials, moosecalls, canoes, mats as well as the homes in which they lived were fashioned of birch bark. Wood, shell, birch bark spoons were used while eating. Each person within the community had their own spoon and wooden bowl to eat from.
~ Relationship and Community Ties ~
The Iroquois were an interesting culture as they were a matrilineal society. Therefore the women of the tribe owned all property, determined kinship and were the heads of the individual clans within the tribe. The Iroquois tribes were divided into 3 separate clans: turtle, bear and wolf. (tolatsga.org) When a man and a woman were married they moved into the woman’s longhouse and raised their children as members of the woman clan. Although they were a farming community, they none the less at times were at war and the females of the clan chose their war leaders. Blood ties and ties of marriage bound the community in a special way and they also brought together individual communities. Each relationship within the community held an appropriate behaviour pattern.
~ Food Sources ~
Agriculture
The Iroquoian people of the Niagara region were a very agricultural people. They planted many crops and sustained themselves on these foods. Such crops as maize (in 2 variations were grown, a blue and a white) squash and beans were grown in manicured and well guarded gardens. Woodland peoples also relied on rice as a main staple. (Ritzenthaler 25, 26) (Quimby 16) The wild rice grown then is not as the rice we have now, it was actually a “cereal grass of the species Zizania aquatica growing in shallow lakes and streams” (Ritzenthaler 22).
Gathering Foods
In the beginning of the warmer seasons they would gather the array of wild bounty the forest offered them. Small fruits such as cherries, chokecherries, and grapes in addition to the vast quantity of nuts available in the forest such as acorns (from both the pin oak and white oak) as well as hickory nuts, hazel nuts, beechnuts and butternuts. (Ritzenthaler 16) A multitude of wild berries grew in the region. Berries such as red and black raspberries, blueberries (in the more northern regions) cranberries, June berry, gooseberries (Ritzenthaler 16) and huckleberries. (Quimby 16) Since they hadn’t eaten good food like these all through the winter most of the berries and such were devoured almost immediately, however some of them were set aside to make preserves and to be dried for storage and eaten with dried meats over the colder seasons.
Fishing
Middle woodland peoples fished throughout the seasons. The women usually did the fishing, in the exception of Ice and Spear fishing which the men did. The people used an array of fishing equipment in their quest for fish. They used fishhooks, traps, spears, lures, bait and a trolling line to catch fish. (ritz 17) Fish was prepared in a variety of ways. Boiling and spit roasting as well as being “pulverised” before boiling (ritz 19) and added to corn-meal mush were among the various ways to prepare a meal. Other pieces were dried in the sun or over a fire and kept for later use. People also would catch and eat various kinds of turtles for dinner. (ritz 19
Hunting and Trapping
Hunting was also a part of Middle Woodland culture. The hunt was an elaborate ritual, which require the hunter to fast and performed sacrifice before the hunt in order to be successful. The hunter would carry certain charms to assure that he would come home victorious. The hunt of such animals as deer, moose, foxes (red, silver and black varieties) and wolves was common. The bear was only hunted when a special ceremony offering an apology to the gods was performed, as the bear was a sacred animal. Smaller game such as otter, mink, marten, lynx and squirrel were trapped as well as small game bird such as the partridge. (ritz 21) Meat was usually boiled in a pottery vessel, or in a recently dead animal stomach, which was filled with water and meat and put over a fire to cook. They also roasted their meats and dried a good portion of it by slicing it thinly and leaving it by the fire to dry. Middle woodland peoples would use the grease of the animal as a seasoning on the berries they had gathered and the rice they had grown.
The tallow from the fat of the animal was stored in the intestines and bladder and made into soap.
~ Pottery ~
The pottery made by the Iroquoian people was fairly typical of the time frame. Using a temper made of crushed shell (Crawford Lake 2000) or granitic stone (Quincy 82). The vessel was fashioned into a jar formation with “rather straight rims and round or semi-conoidal bottoms” (Quincy 82) Often the outside of the pottery vessel was imprinted with the “impressions of a cord-wrapped paddle” (Quincy 82)
~ Clothing and Textiles ~
Female Attire
Clothing in the Middle Woodland era was quite simple. A sleeveless dress of 2 pieces of buckskin sewn together at the sleeves and belted made up the basic attire. Buckskin leggings went from the ankle (where they were fastened by band) up to the knee. An Undershirt of woven nettle fibre was worn under the buckskin dress. In warmer weather a mere tanned buckskin shirt was worn. A Pair of sturdy moccasins were worn on the feet to protect from the environment, animals and the weather. Hair was worn long and kept neat and tidy in a single braid down the back. During occasions when dressing up was called for, a “hair-tie” (ritz 60) was used. A hair-tie was simply the braid being “doubled up and tied in a ‘club’. Around this was wound a strip of buckskin or cloth, about five by 10 inches, each end decorated with quillwork or beadwork.” To this hair-tie, long, narrow streamers of quillwork or loomed beadwork were attached, which hung nearly to the ground” (Ritz 60)
Male Attire
For the men of the tribe dress was very similar. A simple buckskin breechclout (a strip of buckskin approximately 18 by 4 inches, passed through the legs, tucked into belt that left an apron of sorts in front and back, that was usually decorated with quillwork (ritz 56) and leggings were the mans basic attire. With colder weather buckskin robes and sometimes buckskin shirts. Various headdresses were worn such as the turban like headdress of otter hide another using the entire otter. In times of ceremonial occasion and especially in war a roach was worn (a crest of animal hair that fanned outwards worn on the top of the head). (Ritz 58)
~ Housing ~
The Iroquoian of the Niagara region built longhouses. The men in the village built the longhouses. The woods for the house was cut down in the spring when it was still flexible enough to be pliable and brought to the village. The ends of the posts were sharpened into points using stone axes, and some were charred or burned to make them last longer in the ground. The walls of the longhouse were sometimes made from elm bark that was also cut into rectangular slabs to be used for roof shingles and wall siding.
The Palisade
A palisade was simply a strong wall of tall, large timber posts that surrounded the Iroquoian village and protected it from wild animals, weather, and from attacks by intruders. Catwalks were built at various places around the palisade for defense purposes. They were often stockpiled with rocks to heave down on attacking enemies. Clay pots of water were also kept nearby to douse fires lit by attackers and intruders attempting to torch the palisade and gain access to the compound.
~ Conclusion ~
The Iroquoian peoples are a diverse and interesting people whose culture is as diverse as the area they inhabit. The Iroquois branch of the Iroquoian people is in itself an interesting story. Their matriarchal lineage society is among the only in the New World. Their use of tools and available materials are much the same as any other Iroquoian society. All in all the Iroquois and the rest of the Iroquoian society are very similar, with the exception of certain aspects. My hypothesis was correct, in that I thought the cultures would be greatly linked. There are very closely linked in the fact that the Iroquois are just a branch of the Iroquoian people, which at the beginning of the paper I didn’t know there was a difference.
~ Resources ~
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