Cornmeal Cornmeal is really just flour made from corn instead
of wheat, which is what our flour and bread is made from. It can be
used just like wheat, but it tastes different. Some people like it
much better than wheat flour! It was the main food for the Natives
who farmed in this region. Even though the Natives ate lots of
corn, they didnt eat it on the cob like we do today, or even
kernels. It was always dried and made into flour. Their corn was
also different from the varieties we eat today. We are use to
seeing the golden yellow kernels that grow on the ears. Indian corn
was very different. It didnt look the same or taste the same
either. Each cob could be filled with different colours of kernels
yellow, gold, brown, red, white and even black.
Slide 3
Food ceremonies There were six annual ceremonies for the
Natives, and four related to the corn crops! All included feasting
and music produced by rattles and drums. The festivals were: New
Year Festival, Maple Festival, Corn Planting Festival, Strawberry
Festival, Green Corn Festival and Harvest Festival of Thanksgiving.
The Green Corn Festival, was a celebration and feast that took
place in August when the green corn crop was harvested and eaten.
Only some of the corn was eaten; most of it was left in the fields
to dry to be harvested later.
Slide 4
Other food wild tubers The Natives also ate berries, wild
tubers (roots, like potatoes), barks and herbs, and sunflowers.
Tobacco was also grown and harvested, but just for smoking. It
cannot be eaten. Maple syrup was tapped from trees in March and
April. The Natives also made a type of fast food called Trail food
that was made by combining maple syrup, grease and cornmeal. Fish,
ducks and geese, deer and other wood animals were hunted and eaten.
Men were away during the much of winters hunting and trapping
animals. Food was always cooking in a pot in the longhouse and
available to anyone anytime they wanted it they could just help
themselves.
Slide 5
Tools Stone axes arrowheads Stone Axes - They were used for
stripping bark, clearing trees from fields and removing fat from
hides. A stone was found, then chipped into shape using a harder
hammerstone. It was then ground and polished using a sandstone and
then fitted with a handle. The process took many hours, so axes
were highly valued and not lent to others. Arrowheads - They were
made from flint, which is a type of sedimentary rock. When the rock
broke, it left sharp edges. Arrowheads were used for hunting and
were shaped like triangles. The smallest ones were for hunting
birds, the bigger ones to spear bears or deer. Flint knives were
often oval or teardrop shaped. Knives They were pointed at both
ends, so they could be fitted with a handle.
Slide 6
Transportation Snowshoes worn during winter and allowed the
Natives to walk swiftly across the snow without sinking. They were
made from tree boughs bent into frames and laced with animal sinew.
These snow shoes made it easy to walk on top of snow that could be
two or three feet deep. This way hunters could easily catch up to a
moose or deer that was floundering helplessly in the deep snow. The
canoes were made from elm bark which was a common wood. Birch bark
could be used making the canoe lighter and faster. The size of the
canoe varied between 3 m and 8 m. The bark was stripped in late
spring and then soaked in steaming water. The bendable bark was
then placed over a frame and then sewn together using a large bone
needle and basswood cord and thread made from sinew. Then the canoe
was painted with pine gum, making it watertight.
Slide 7
Religion During the long winter nights, Elders in the villages
huddled around longhouse fires and passed on the clan stories to
the younger generations. Nothing was written down; everything was
passed down orally through stories. The stories usually included
animals as well as people. Each myth, legend or story had a purpose
- to explain a part of nature or creation. Often these stories had
morals or lessons that the younger generation was suppose to learn.
All creatures of nature- trees, plants, animals, the moon- had
spirits of their own that either helped or punished a person. A
spirit could be prayed to for help and guidance.
Slide 8
The Iroquois believe in the Great Spirit, the Creator of all
things. A little less powerful than the Great Spiriti were Good
Spirit and Evil Spirit. Both of these spirits had many little
spirits to help them. The Good Spirit made all the good things on
earth. The Evil Spirit, the twin, was responsible for all the bad
things on earth. The Iroquois believed in an afterlife. They
believed their spirit would join the Good Spirit in the wonderful
place where the Good Spirit lived as long as the Iroquois honored
the Good Spirit (and all the good spirit little helpers) and lived
a good life. There were always bad spirits around, doing their best
to block this from happening.
Slide 9
Some bad spirits caused disease. Other bad spirits caused bad
behavior in people. The False Face Society was an Iroquois healing
group. The Iroquois False Face Society knew they could not kill a
bad spirit. Their job was to scare the bad spirits away. They used
masks and chants and rattles and dance to scare the evil spirits
and to chase them away. One bad spirit was the flying head. The
False Face Society was very familiar with the flying head. He lived
in the forest and caused all the disease he could. He was a very
bad spirit. If someone had a spooky dream, and saw a flying head,
they would go to the False Face Society and ask for help.
Slide 10
A resemblance to grade 6? To chase the flying head spirit away,
the dreamer would be told to: 1. Carve a face on a living basswood
tree. 2. Once the face was carved, the tree would be cut down. 3.
The piece of tree that had the outline of a flying face carved on
it would be taken to the wood carver. 4. The wood carver made a
wood mask following the lines of the carved face on the log. The
masks created by the wood carvers always had twisted features and
looked scary. 5. Once the mask was ready, the dreamer and his or
her family clan hosted a feast. They were responsible for the
preparation of all the food. During the feast, with the help of
chants and rattles, the members of the False Face Society, invited
a good spirit to take the place of the bad one.
Slide 11
6. From that time on, the mask was treasured and honored. It
was now the home of a good spirit that had to be protected by the
dreamer and the clan. Most of the ailments that were brought to
them were easy fixes. If someone came to them with a headache, the
ceremony would be performed in the longhouse for everyone to enjoy.
The society would put on their masks, and dance, and blow ashes in
the sufferers face. In minutes, they were done, and the person was
suppose to be better. Their reward was some tobacco and some corn
mush given to them by the grateful family, who was sure that the
sufferer was now cured.
Slide 12
The person they cured automatically became a member of the
society. If you were helped, it was important that you go on to
help others. That was the Iroquois way. Each spring and fall,
members of the False Face Society each wore a mask and went from
home to home, chanting and shaking rattles, and making as much
noise as they could. This was the twice-annual evil spirit house
cleaning festival. The noise they made was designed to scare away
any little evil spirits that they might have overlooked during the
previous months.
Slide 13
Clothing The Eastern Woodland Natives dressed differently from
the Plains Natives. Walking through forests and farmed fields meant
protecting your legs and arms. They made clothes from soft
deerskin. The women and men wore leggings, shirts, and moccasins.
The sewing needle was a small bone from the ankle of a deer. The
women wore a skirt or a dress that covered most of their leggings.
In the winter, the men added a smock that went down to their knees
for warmth. They decorated their clothes with dyed porcupine
quills. The women wore their hair long. Warriors wore their hair in
a "mohawk" - a wide stripe of hair left down the middle of their
head. Men removed all body hair by scraping it off. Both men and
women decorated their bodies with tattoos.
Slide 14
The Gustoweh The Iroquois Nation was similar in most ways. One
difference between them was the Gustoweh. A Gustoweh is a type of
hat worn by each Native group in the Iroquois Nation. Each Gustoweh
was a wood frame made from strips of ash wood. When finished, it
looked a bit like an upside down basket that fit the head of the
Native. It was then covered with fabric or animal skin and adorned
with eagle or hawk feathers. Each member of the Iroquois
Confederacy wore a different number of feathers or a slightly
different arrangement of feathers. This was one way to identify
different groups within the Iroquois nation.
Slide 15
Who is who? As the picture shows, each Gustoweh was different
for each Iroquois tribe. The Mohawk had three feathers sticking
straight up. The Seneca had one feather straight up. The Onondaga
had one feather up and one feather sticking towards the back. The
Cayuga had one feather sticking out the back. The Oneida had two
feathers sticking up and one feather sticking out the back The
Tuscarora wore a Gustoweh that had no feathers.
Slide 16
1500 years ago, the area we now call Ontario was ruled by the
Algonquians who shared land with the Huron, Neutral and Petun
nations. The Iroquois travelled south to settle among those nations
peacefully. 1000 years ago, legend has it an Iroquois man killed a
Seneca chief. Different Natives groups broke into sides as war
broke out. The Iroquois lost and were eventually exiled to less
fertile land south of the Great Lakes. The Iroquois tribes fought
amongst themselves and became weak and poor, while the nations
north of the Great Lakes became strong and peaceful civilizations.
The Iroquois kept asking to return to their old lands, but the
other nations insisted on their decision for the Iroquois to remain
south of their land.
Slide 17
600 years ago, the Iroquois decided to work together and form a
confederacy based on peace among their five nations. For hundreds
of years, the 'Five Nations' grew stronger and sub- councils by
different tribes were formed, like a war party with a separate war
chief. The main council remained peaceful. The Iroquois became
upset that the Huron Natives controlled all of the fur trade with
the French. They wanted to move north and be involved with the
trading as well. The Iroquois decided to attack the other Eastern
Woodland Farmers. In 1642, the Five Nations war party attacked
Contarea, a major Huron village located on Lake Simcoe, near what
is now the city of Orillia. Within hours, the village was
destroyed.
Slide 18
Moving quickly, they surprised other Huron towns, claimed the
lands, and wiped out the entire Huron people within a year. By the
end of the next year, the Petuns and Neutrals were also wiped out.
The Iroquois became the most powerful group of Natives in the
area.
Slide 19
Wampum To the Natives, Wampum was simply the Quogue or
clamshell polished and fashioned into beads. These beads could be
made into a string or even a belt. It was important because Wampum
was a system of recording important things. The Natives did not
have a written language, so Wampum was a way to record these
important events, contracts or stories. The person who wore the
wampum had the authority to speak about the story, so it was also
used as a symbol of position and title within the community. The
great circle wampum, for example, was a belt worn only by a chief
as a symbol of his position. Wampum was also given to seal a
promise.
Slide 20
Wampum was made from dyed beads or shells, arranged in a
certain way. To make wampum, you must: First, you needed to collect
the right size shells or make certain sized beads. Then, you needed
to dye your materials. Individual beads and shells were dyed
various shades of solid purple, solid cream, or a mix of purples
and cream. No other colors were used in making wampum. Next, you
had to string your beads on a thread in a certain order, depending
upon what you wanted to say. The designs made out of certain
combinations of colors had both symbolic and actual meaning. Long
messages were made by sewing the strings of beads together to make
a wampum belt.
Slide 21
Wampum money Wampum became very valuable. Once European
settlers came to live in the same area as the Natives, they started
using wampum as money. The colonists would even trade wampum belts
with other colonists. To the Iroquois people, wampum was a written
record. They did not have money in their culture. They did,
however, trade wampum for other items they needed that the
Europeans had.
Slide 22
The Peace Pipe Peace pipes were a sacred symbol for Native
Americans. Like all Native American art, peace pipes were fashioned
with great care. Smoking a peace pipe had great significance: it
could seal a political agreement or a treaty with the another
tribe. It could also be used to arrange a marriage. Like many other
aspects of the Native culture, peace pipes also have a legend
behind them. One night, two young men were walking in a ravine.
Suddenly, they saw a beautiful young maiden coming towards them.
She had a dress made out of fine material. Each man fell in love
with the girl instantly. As she approached them, they noticed that
she held a pipe in her hands. The girl took the pipe and offered it
to the sky, the earth, and then held it toward the men.
Slide 23
The girl put the pipe on the ground and then turned into a
buffalo. The buffalo pawed the ground, stuck her tail out behind
her, and picked up the pipe with her hooves. Then, the cow turned
into a girl again. She explained that she was giving them a peace
pipe. She told them that a peace pipe should be a part of all
sacred ceremonies and treaties.