Native American Traditions (Part 4)

By Claude Chavis

Over the centuries, Native Americans learned to survive comfortably in a wide range of environments, from the tropics to the Artic Circle.  The necessities of life can be easily gathered in most areas of the American.  Survival depends on basic skills that can be taught even to young children.

The necessities include water, food, shelter, and clothing.  A fire can help us survive in many ways; to boil water to make it safe to drink, to cook food, to warm a shelter, to dry clothing, to provide light and emotional comfort, to signal for help, to smoke meat or fish for long term storage, to help tan hides for clothing and moccasins.  All of these jobs are made easier by a fire.

The traditional methods of making fire include the use of flint and steel, the use of a magnifying lens (burning glass), or the use of friction.  Part 3 told the story of Three Arrows; a young Mohawk brave who learned to make fire by rubbing two dry sticks together.  The rubbing produces friction that produces enough heat to start tinder smoldering.  Most people have used friction to warm their hands by rubbing them together on a cold day.  Making fire by friction is similar to that warming.

Over the years, Native Americans have developed several variations on the friction method of making fire, most of which are require a lot of work before you see the first puff of smoke from your tinder.  The Bow Drill and the Fire Saw are the two most reliable methods of starting a fire by friction.  In an emergency, you can make a bow drill or fire saw without any elaborate tools.  Some sticks and a rock picked up off the ground can do the trick.

The Bow Drill consists of a fireboard made from a soft wood (such as Pine), a drill made from a hard wood (such as Oak), a bow made from a piece of “springy” wood (such as Hickory or any “green” wood} and a lace (such as a work boot lace or strip of leather), and a hand piece made from either a smooth, dimpled rock or a piece of hard wood.

 You will also need tinder (very fine kindling). Any dry plant materials will work: old rope, the inner bark of most dead trees, grasses, weeds, and reeds such as cattail heads, yucca, etc. Tow (the fibers from the flax plant) and raw cotton are also excellent forms of tinder. Tease the rope, tow or cotton strands into fibers. Pound bark into fibers. Rub grasses and weeds into fibers. The finer the tinder the better, you want it in strands, like hair.

 Place you tinder partially under a V-notch in your fireboard.  Wrap the lace around the drill one turn.  Place the sharp end of the drill in the hand block and the dull end into the fire block. Begin to work the bow back and forth, like a sawing motion.  Slowly increase your speed while keeping a steady rhythm.  Watch for smoke coming from the fire block.

Continue “sawing” until the smoke is constant (not just an occasional puff). Quickly set the bow and drill aside and dump the hot “sawdust” from the block into your tinder. Gently blow. If no glow is seen, repeat the above steps. It may take several tries to get the “sawdust” hot enough to catch the tinder on fire.

With a little practice, you should be able to start your campfire in a minute or less.  And, the best part is there are no matches to get wet or lighters to run out of fluid.

The Fire Saw is a last resort method; it consists of rubbing two pieces of wood vigorously against each other.  Either a soft wood such as balsam or split bamboo make a good fire saw.  To use bamboo, you want a piece of dry bamboo that is 2 to 3 inches in diameter and 2 to 3 feet long.  You can normally find bamboo in swampy areas of both Carolinas.  Split the bamboo in half and then cut a notch on each edge of one piece so that the notches line up.  Place some tinder between the notches, and brace the notched bamboo on the ground with your foot or knee.  With the other piece of split bamboo, saw in the notches until the tinder starts to smoke heavily, then blow on the tinder to ignite the fire.

Rather than just read this article, you might want to try these techniques yourself.  Better yet, once you can make fire by these methods, teach someone else.  Pass on the story of Blazing Arrow and the techniques to your children or grandchildren.  They may need the knowledge at some time in their life and it will help preserve a part of our Native American Traditions.

 

Native American Traditions (Part 3)

BY CLAUDE CHAVIS

Native Americans have a tradition of storytelling. The stories were used to entertain and teach the children lessons that they could use in everyday life. This is tradition that has faded in most modern families. Today too often our children learn their life lessons from the movies and television. The lessons of the storytellers are forgotten.

Consider the story of “How Cousin Bear Lost His Tale.”

Back in the days before the first men came to the Carolinas, the Bear had a beautiful black glossy long tail. The Bear used to wave it proudly in the air so that the other animals could admire it. The Bear loved the compliments he heard about his tail.

The cunning Small Fox saw this and was filled with envy. As everyone knows, the fox is a trickster and likes nothing better than fooling others. So it was that Small Fox decided to play a trick on Bear and ruin his tail.

It was the time of Ice in the mountains, and the lakes and streams were covered with ice. Small Fox made a hole in the ice of one stream, near where Bear liked to walk in the afternoon. By the time Bear came by, Small Fox had piled up several big trout and fat perch on the ice.

As Bear walked by Fox twitched his tail out of that hole in the ice and pulled out another huge trout. As Bear looked over the fine catch of fish, Small Fox said, “Hello, Cousin, How is you this fine day?”

“Fine, Cuz,” answered Bear, looking at the big pile of fish. ” I am well. But what are you doing?”

“I am fishing,” answered Small Fox. “Want to try yourself?”

“Oh, yes,” said Bear lumbering over to Small Fox’s fishing hole.

But Fox said, “Wait, Cuz, this fishing spot will not be any good. I have already caught all the fish. Let’s make you a new fishing spot where you can catch many big trout.”

Small Fox lead Bear to a new place, where the water was too shallow for the winter fish. They always stay in the deep water when the lakes and streams freeze over. Bear watched as Small Fox dug a hole in the ice, already tasting the fine fish he would catch.

“Now,” Small Fox said, “you must turn your back to the hole and place your tail inside it. Soon a fish will come and grab your tail. I will hide over here where the fish cannot see me. When a fish grabs your tail, I will shout. Then you must pull as hard as you can to catch your fish.

Bear nodded, “I will do as you say.” He sat down next to the hole, placed his long beautiful black tail in the icy water and waited.

Fox watched for a time to make sure that Bear was doing as he was told and then quietly sneaked off to his own home and went to bed. The next morning, Small Fox went back to the ice-covered stream and what do you think he saw? He saw a little white hill in the middle of the ice. It had snowed during the night and covered Bear, who had fallen asleep while waiting for Small Fox to tell him to pull his tail out and catch his fish.

Bear was snoring so loud that the ice was shaking. Small Fox rolled in the snow with laughter. But when he was through laughing, he crept up very close to Bear’s ear, took a deep breath, and then shouted: “Now, Bear!!!”

Bear woke up with a start and pulled his long tail hard as he could. But his tail had been frozen in the ice during the night, and as he pulled, it broke off. Bear turned around to look at the fish he had caught and instead saw his long lovely tail laying on the ice.

“Ohhh, my poor tail,” he moaned, “Fox. I will get you for this.” But Small Fox was faster than Bear and he leaped aside and was gone. Ever since that day, Bears have had short tails and hate Foxes.

Native American Traditions (Part 2)

By Claude Chavis
Do you want a simple traditional Native American gift that is simple to make and provides hours of fun? If the answer is yes, consider the Bowl Game (Uti?nehkweh Awe?nhekwe?). Among the Native American tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy, the bowl game was and often still is played during the winter months when the weather restricts outside activities.

This simple game requires only a small bowl, and six matching coins (used as dice). Traditionally narrow sticks (like chop sticks) and flat sticks (like ice cream sticks) were used for keeping score. One flat stick is equal to three narrow sticks.

For a fine traditional present the bowl could be hand carved from a hardwood such as oak and the tokens would be made from 6 peach seeds or 6 wooden disks (like checkers) hand painted with a simple pattern on each side.
At the beginning of play narrow sticks and flat sticks are placed in a central pile. Players take turns tossing the dice into the air by gently thumping the bowl on the ground. The score depends on how the dice land in the bowl.
For each successful toss of the dice you are awarded counting sticks. If you toss:
• 6-alike: You are awarded 1 flat stick and you toss again.
• a second-6 alike: You receive 2 flat sticks and you toss again.
• a third consecutive 6-alike: You are awarded 3 flat sticks or 1 narrow stick.
If you toss:
• 5-alike: You are awarded 3 narrow sticks and you toss again.
• a second 5-alike: You receive 6 narrow sticks and you toss again.
• a third consecutive 5-alike: You are awarded 1 flat stick.
If you toss:
• 4-alike: No sticks are awarded; it’s your opponent’s turn.
• 3-alike: No sticks are awarded; it’s your opponent’s turn.
• 2-alike: No sticks are awarded; it’s your opponent’s turn.
Players take turns casting dice until all of the counters are used up. The last stick to be awarded is the “Crooked stick”. If you don’t want to use the sticks to keep score, players should decide to play to a specific score, say 50 or 100.

Snow Snake (Utrahwehte?) is another popular game among the Native American tribes in the northeast. The Snow Snake is a wooden stick about 3 feet long, with a carved head resembling a snake. A simple Snow Snake can be made from a hickory cane or walking stick decorated to resemble a snake. As the name suggests, this game is played in winter on frozen lakes or in flat snow covered fields. For major competitions a track is pressed down into the snow by dragging a log across the playing field. This track could be up to a mile long.

The Snow Snake is thrown down the run, and races along the top of the ice. The winner is the player whose Snow Snake travels the longest distance in one throw. This game can be played as a tournament with pairs of players competing against each other until the final two meets to decide the winner.

There are literally hundreds of other traditional Native American games and toys that we can play. Some traditional Native American games that most people are familiar with include Lacrosse, Web Weaving (cat’s cradle), Little Sticks (jack straws), Top Spinning, and Marbles.

We will discuss other games and toys in future articles in this series. If you have a favorite traditional game, recipe or story that you would like to share, please send it to Claude Chavis, 3505 Sarge Lane, McColl, SC 29570 or email peedeendn@gmail.com.

Native American Traditions (Part 1)

BY CLAUDE CHAVIS

 

When the first Europeans arrived in North Carolina, they found Native American farmers along all the major rivers and streams.  The Eastern Woodland people were farmers in spring and summer and hunters and trappers in the fall and winter. The women cultivated a wide variety of vegetables and native plants.

 

They farmed corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers to provide the bulk of their food.  Hunting and gathering only supplemented food from crops, but the white-tailed deer was still the most important source of meat.

 

Permanent villages were common. Some were hamlets, with houses strung out along riverbanks. Others were compact villages, with houses clustered together around a central, open area. Many villages have wooden stockades surrounding them.  House shapes varied across the regions, but usually were square or rectangular. Piedmont dwellings tend to be round or oval.

 

Lacking metal tools, Native Americans typically cleared land by girdling trees and then burning any undergrowth.  Girdling consisted of cutting away a wide band of bark from each tree using a stone axe or adz.  Most of their farming tools were very simple and made from antlers, shells, stones, and wood.  Some examples that we can make today include Digging Sticks, Hoes and Rakes.

 

Digging Sticks can be made from a green limb from a tree, approximately 36-48 inches long and 1to 1 1/2 inches in diameter. One end is sawn or cut an angled edge, to give the stick a sharp point for making holes in the soil.

 

An uprooted a sapling tree with the roots intact can make a simple Hoe.  The trunk serves as the handle while the root ball is carved into a blade and hardened in a fire.

 

Combining a digging stick and half of a large mussel shell can make Shell Hoes.  Drill a hole into the hinged edge to accept the end of a digging stick.  Then the shell is laced to the digging stick with cord or sinew.

 

A Bone Hoe uses a scapular bone from a turkey or deer.  Drill a hole into the end of the digging stick and insert the slender end of the scapular.  Then tie the bone in place with cord or sinew.  To make a Rake, a deer antler can be attached upside down to the end of a digging stick and secured with cord or sinew.

 

Using these simple tools, Native Americans cleared garden plots in the forests that covered the Carolinas and planted their crops.  The most important of those crops was corn or maize.  The Native American name for corn means “our life” or “it sustains us.” 

 

Nearly all the Native American traditions point to the far southwest as the mother country of corn or maize.  Most scientists now agree that maize was developed from Mexican grasses known as “teosinte” and Tripsacum.  Evidence points to the ancient Mayans near the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.  Archeologists have found evidence of the spread of maize from there throughout the Americans long before the first Europeans arrived.

 

The Pilgrims in the Plymouth Colony on September 11, 1620 looted a nearby Native American village “and took with them parte of ye corne…and here is to be noted a spetiall providence of God… that hear they got seed to plant them corne ye next year, or els they might have starved.”

 

In John Lawson’s History of Carolina, he stated “The Indian corn or Maize proves the most useful Grain in the World; and had it not been for the fruitfulness of this species, it would have proved very difficult to have settled some of the Plantations in America.” 

 

If you wish to plant corn in the traditional manner, plant the seeds directly in a garden plot after the last frost.  Corn can be planted in rows, with plants approximately 12 inches apart, or in hills with six to eight seeds per hill. Plant the hills far apart so that in hilling up later, there will be adequate soil to use. The seeds should be planted 1/2 to 1 inch deep.

The corn will grow vigorously with full sunlight and an inch to an inch and a half of water per week. If roots begin to appear, hill soil up around the roots to help support the stalks. The large tassels at the top of the plant are the male flowers and the silks are the female parts of the corn. At least twenty plants are needed to insure adequate pollination.

 

The corn was typically harvested when the silks turn brown.  Most of the crop was dried on the stalk.  The entire plant was allowed to dry and then the corn was removed from the stalks and husked in the field. Husking involves removing the husks from the ears of corn. The ears would then be placed on platforms to dry. In some instances, long ears were put aside and braided together by their husks and dried on poles.

 

When the corn was dry, Native Americans would sometimes construct a booth (walls around a platform) in which they used flails to beat the corn off of the cobs. The cobs were burned and the cooled ashes were made into balls that would be used for seasoning dishes.  Shallow bowls were used to winnow the chaff from the corn on a windy day.

 

The first taste of fresh corn each year was in the form of leaf bread.  The kernels of corn were cut from the cob while still green and mashed in a mortar.   The resulting thick milky paste is patted into a thin cake on one end of a large green corn leave.  The other end of the leave is folded over to provide a lid; and then other leaves are added to form a packet completely surrounding the corn paste.  After being securely tied, the packet is dropped into boiling water for 45 minutes.  The packets are then opened and the leaf bread eaten with butter, oil, or grease.  This makes a good tasty breakfast when lightly fried or drizzled with hot bacon grease.

 

Native American typically parched corn for storage.  To parch corn in a modern kitchen, put the dry kernels in a dry frying pan over low to medium heat. Stir until the kernels are lightly browned.  Parched corn was then ground into a meal and used in a variety of recipes.

 

The following recipe is for Johnnycakes, an adaptation of the original ashcakes:

 

 

The ingredients include:

1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
2 cups boiling water
1 pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons Maple syrup
3/4 cup light cream
1/4 cup vegetable oil for frying

 

Mix the cornmeal and salt. Scald this mixture with the boiling water by gradually adding the water as you stir rapidly. Stir until smooth and then stir in the maple syrup.  Cool the batter and thin with cream until it is of medium consistency, not runny.   Drop the batter by the spoonful onto a well-oiled griddle.  Cook for about 5 minutes per side.  Remove from griddle and set on paper towels to drain. 

 

For more traditional recipes send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Claude Chavis, 1697 Pinedell Avenue, Monroe, NC 28110-7898 or email peedeendn@gmail.com.

Update

I am no longer associated with the Board of Directors or the Genealogist/Tribal Historian of the Pee Dee Indian Nation of Upper South Carolina. Due to health issues, I am currently living in North Carolina and no longer serve on any position in the tribe or the Indian Affairs Committee of the South Carolina Minority Affairs Commission.

Claude W. Chavis, Jr., a doctoral candidate at Walden University, has written “Hiding in Plain Sight: The Pee Dee after Contact.” Mr. Chavis is Tribal Historian of the Pee Dee Indian Nation of Upper South Carolina, but also traces his heritage to the Catawba and Tuscarora Indian nations. His tribal name is “Turtle He Dreams” or “Turtle Dreaming”. He was named a Native American Community Scholar by the Smithsonian Institute in 2008.
Community Scholar Awards are available for individuals, who are formally or informally affiliated with a Native American community or tribe. The awards allow individuals to pursue independently designed research projects in association with Smithsonian staff. The awards are made on the basis of evaluations and recommendations by a Smithsonian review committee. Mr. Chavis collaborated with the Smithsonian’s Cultural Resource Center of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., in his research.
Mr. Chavis’ book is focused on the fate of the survivors of the Pee Dee Indian Nation in the eighteen through the early twenty-first centuries. He documented the link between the Pee Dee Indians described in the earliest written records of the Colonial government to the Pee Dee Indians in present day South Carolina.
The book is a synthetic history or ethnohistory of the Pee Dee Indians that will appeal to the intelligent lay reader. As a work of synthesis, this book draws upon the entire body of pertinent scholarship, including primary and secondary sources, to provide an interpretation of the Pee Dee Indians’ history.
Ethnohistory, first used in Vienna in the 1930s by ethnologist Fritz Roack, is the use of ethnological methods and materials to gain knowledge of the nature and causes of change in a culture. Usually dealing with small groups that do not have written histories, ethnohistory offers a way of utilizing the rich record of historical experience in the search for the processes of cultural adaptation.
His research was limited to the geographical area of the Carolinas in order to provide a clear focus. Primary research locations are Columbia, S.C., Raleigh, N.C., and Washington, D.C. The title of his book is “Hiding in Plain Sight: The Pee Dee Indians after Contact.”

The book is available through http://www.amazon.com as a paperback book or through Kindle as an e-book. Further information is available from the author at peedeendn@gmail.com.

Module 6 – Blogs visited

I read and commented on the blogs of Sara Becker at http://edtechblogwaldenu.blogspot.com/ and Lou Morris at http://educ7015.blogspot.com/

Module 5 – Blogs visited

I read and commented on the blogs of Randall Case at http://sighborgmusings.blogspot.com/ and Roxanne Wright at http://learningtheoryedtechrwright.blogspot.com/

Module 6 – Learning in a Digital World

My overarching goal for student learning is merely to facilitate learning. I believe in using whatever tools are available to accomplish that goal. I embrace multiple learning theories and philosophical concepts. My basic orientation is to Constructivism although I accept elements of other theories as the need arises. My personal, educational philosophy is a combination of Perennialism, Progressivism, and Social Reconstructionism. I like the ideas of Progressivism most of all but the old conservation in me likes lectures and questioning aspects of Perennialism, and the hippie in me likes Social Reconstructionism. I developed and revised my own personal, educational philosophy several times over the 42 years since I first taught a class on GEMS (Ground Effects Machines). I try just to keep an open mind and learn about different things as they come up.

My approaches in the online setting could include discussions, collaborative learning, electronic blogs/journals, informal instruction, inquiry-based learning, papers, portfolios, projects, reflections, web sites, and wiki. In any setting, the primary goal is to facilitate learning. In order to accomplish this, I must engage the students’ interest, guide them to the knowledge they need, and provide a fair assessment of their progress. As part of this effort, I would like to instill a sense of community with the group. By modeling behaviors, I hope to encourage students to a love of learning.