Native american websites
Native American culture
Native American clothing
NAtive American healing practices
Native American weapons
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Stepping softly so as not to disturb the animals they all raise thir bows and simultaneously shoot. The bucks all go down, and the hunters cheer and thrust their fists into the air as tribute to the Gods for their sucessful days hunt. They rush foreward to retreive their hungry tribes food. Native Americans lives were hard but joyous. They worshiped the Gods and spirits, hunted, foraged, and then returned to the tribe to be with their family. They had ceremonies and rituals to celebrate many things. They traveled around for food, even without cars! The docters healed with herbs, plants and spirits, not toxic drugs. The children would practice hunting and fill their days with laughter. The native americans had perfect lives. The Native people had housing that kept the weather out. Their homes were designed to be moved very easily, because they were nomadic, meaning they traveled for food. Depending on where they lived and traveled they had different style houses. The people in the Eastern woodlands for example, had longhouses. Longhouses were wooden frames covered with large bark strips. They were rectangular and had a barrel shaped roof. Several families could live in one house. usually the Chief and his family would have the nicest. The Plains Indians obviously had tepees. These were very simple, a cone shaped frame with animal hide nailed to it. Usually they had a gap at the top for smoke from their fires to escape when the door was closed. Not only were their houses efficaint, so were their clothes. They kept them either warm and dry or cool and dry. They wore clothes according to their whereabouts. For instance, Eskimos wore sealskin jackets lined with wolf or caribou fur. These were both warm and waterproof . On the contrary people who lived in the south wore cedar bark clothes or small deer hide clothes. To make cedar bark clothes the women softened it with water then weaved it. Mats and bowls were sometimes made like this. However they were made of stronger, harder bark. The Native Americans clothes were amazingly adequate particularly when you consider their time. They had docters, who were just if not more efficiant as ours. The medicine men healed strictly with plants and herbs along with the help of spirits. The Natives believed that every plant or herb would cure a certain illness. Also they thought some animal spirits and evil spirits brought sickness, whereas some brought health. The docters truely cared for the people of the tribe. For example, they would decorate the room with healing powers. They would spread sand on the floor of the patients room, then they put dyes in the sand to create magical pictures. As Thomas said "the sand would absorb the evil spirits and sickness." (49) The children of the tribe had little to worry about, no school. All they did was play and learn to live off the land. The boys and girls learned how to hunt, fish, and forage from a very young age. They had to learn for example what berrys they could and couldn't eat. Fighting skills were highly important for a boy to learn. It would help him in combat, and in finding a partner. The girls parents were only going to allow her to marry the strongest of the boys. Marriage was one of the larger concerns. The girls could be married at thirteen and in most tribes had to be married at fourteen. When a girl was thirteen, if she were unmarried she must wear " elaborate hair styles and cotton shawls to show her eligibility" (wood-46) Once a woman was to be married, it was tradition for her to go to her husband-to-be's home and grind corn for three consecuative days to show her wifely skills.The marriage was only finalized when the girls mother washed her hair in the same bowl as her new partner. Teens would play vigorous games to improve, or maintain physical strength, endurance, speed, reflexes and combat skills. Women however, were only allowed to to play card games and bet on the winners of the more athleticly advanced male games. They were expected to be far to busy cleaning, gardening, raising kids, sewing and foraging, to play. Oh well that was a girls job back in the day. When the Natives weren't stationed in one area they were out searching for hunting lands or following their migrating animal prey. When their travels took them across lakes they were forced to use canoes. Normally they used redwood to make them. Redwood has very high levals of buoyancy. It takes many months to build one canoe, since there are several steps to making it correctly. Luckily they could usually make two canoes out of one large tree. To make canoes the Native Americans had to cut a tree in half, then they lit fires all down the center. The fires were so they didn't have to chisel out as much when it came time to shaping the boat. Also burning it softened it and made it much easier to deal with. As the fires died out the natives would put sticks in it to widen it at the top and lengthen it. Canoes were helpful for much of their travel. However when they wern't traveling by boat they had to walk. The women made moccasins out of leather. Their was one piece for the sole, the tongue, and the ankle, sewn together with animal sinew. There was only one moccasin for a pair. Meaning that there was no left or right, only one. This was so that warriors could just slip them oneasily and quickly. The Natives in the woodlands had soft-soled moccasins so when they were in the woods they couldn't be heard. However, on the contrary, people in the plains wore hard soled moccasins to protect their feet from the thorns and solid terrain. Moccasins were just another of their adaptions to living where they did. The children of the tribe rode on their mothers back, in a in cradle like carrier, when they were traveling. The dogs would carry the equivelent of two large suitcases, on what is called a travois. A travois is a wooden frame made of many poles tied together with a rope, usually attached with a harness to a dog. The Native tribes people would paint their shoes and thier dogs with pollen. They would create spiritual pictures. They believed that the pollen would help them find their way. without travel these people would have died. The Native American Indians had many ceremonies and rituals. Ceremonies celebrated happenings such as, healing succesful harvests, a hunt,and other important things. They were a way to show thanks to the Gods and higher powers. Also they were a way of asking the Gods for things. The most famous ceremony was Harvest Snake. The Snake Priests of the Hopi tribe would put snake heads in their mouths, and dance and chant, while the snake is growing angry. They did this because it brought good harvests, they also thought that the more venomous the snake the better the harvest would be. Rituals were a way of worshiping the Gods, and spirits. They believed that everything had a spirit, from animals and trees to air and water. The Natives usually danced for these rituals because they believed that the spirits could only be reached by through dance. Indians thought that they must dance and worship even the evil spirits power and strength. Otherwise the spirit would hurt them to its power. The most feared of all the spirits was the dreaded Cannibal Spirit of the North. Religion was a main part of life for the Native people. Regardless of the fact that Native Americans were not technilogicaly advanced, their ways of life were adequate. Their many types of homes kept out the animals and the weather, even though they might not have looked the best. The Medicine man healed with herbs, plants and spirits, not the toxic medications of today. Back in the natives prime years there were many tribes, all in different locations, everyone had clothing that worked efficiently for their specific weather. After years of living and traveling around the same areas they began to track the seasons and what weather they brought along. They had many Gods that they worshiped there rituals. As well as ceremonies that gave thanks. The people traveled around for food in canoes made from redwood, and walked in moccasins made from leather. Native American Indians lived very astounding lives because, the adapted to their land and lived off of it without waste or pollution. Also because they remembered what was important in life, were kind to those whom they cared for, and they held them close so as they could protect them.
