What an amazing day? We met a real Indian Chief. This is the Chief of the Beaver Creek Indian Tribe and he came to our preschool today to teach us about the lifestyle of local American Indians. I know you weren't with us, but I can almost bet you know what everyone in our class said, "He is sooooo cool!" He made all of his clothing from animal skins and made his walking stick with deer antlers. His necklaces were made of alligator teeth and bear claws. (The children were right, that is really cool!!!) He also taught us about the different homes that American Indians would have lived in and that the tribes in our area would have lived in a dwelling called a "long house."
This was because there were so many trees in this area and they could be used to make something more substantial than a teepee. Although we were really interested in a bow and arrow and teepees, he
taught us that the American Indians live just like we do today.
He taught us about traditional foods that Amercian Indians would have eaten and about planting the "Three Sisters." The "Three Sisters" are corn, beans and squash and these are planted together because they complement each other. First the corn grows tall and provides something for the beans to climb as they vine up - and the squash grows around the bottom of the corn. Pretty smart!!!!
Below you will see a large rock in his hand. This rock is believed to be almost 17,000 years old and was a shoe form for making moccasins. He also had a tomahawk stone and axe stone from about the same time period. (For our class, this just meant that those rocks are really, really old.)
And I forgot to tell you - did you know that his belt if made from the skin of a canebreak rattle snake? I am telling you - the children were totally amazed.
Many thanks to this American Indian Chief that took time out of his schedule to come to our little preschool and share his heritage with us. We all know that the story of the American Indians is not very happy and that the arrival of the Pilgrims really was not a good thing, but that part of the story is for later years in education. We are so grateful that he is working hard to keep this part of our history alive.
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