| Dreamcatchers |
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| Dreamcatchers |
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Background Information
The Algonquian Indians hung dreamcatchers from cradleboards to protect their babies. They
believed that the dreamcatcher would catch bad dreams and allow good dreams to pass
through the web.
Visit this site for Directions on How to Make a Dreamcatcher:
http://www.nativetech.org/dreamcat/dreminst.html
| Beading |  |
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Background Information
Each year Seminole women were given strings of beads on their
birthdays. One new string was added each year until the women turned
40 years old. The necklaces covered the women's necks up to their ears and chin. When the
women became 40 years old they began to lay one strand of beads aside year by year until
only one strand was left. The Seminole women never went into public without the necklaces.
Directions for Making a "Bead" Necklace
Beading (wampum belt)
Recipe for making art and bead clay: http://www.eebeads.com/Webzine/FEB/2_2_97.htm
| Medicine Bag |  |
Background Information
Native Americans carried bags of such things as animal and bird
skins, pipes, dried herbs, and tobacco. They believed these objects
to have special powers. Two of the most important bundles were the
pipe bundle and the beaver bundle. The beaver bundle always contained
the skin of the beaver along with skins of other animals. Some had feathers of birds, rattles, and other objects. The bundles were used in healing and opened at
certain times such as when the first thunder was heard in the
spring. The pipe bundle contained tobacco to be used in pipes.
Directions for Making a Medicine Bag
| Corn Husk Mask |  |
Directions:
1. Make four braids from raffia. The finished braids should be approximately three feet long.
2. To a heavy cardboard plate glue (using hot melt glue) one braid in an oval shape to form the mouth.
3. Coil two other braids for each eye section and glue them firmly to the plate.
4. The fourth braid is glued around the circumference of the mask.
5. To make the fringe cut 12-inch pieces of raffia and loop them around a piece of raffia the length of the circumference of the mask. Glue this to the plate.
6. Cut holes for the eyes and mouth.
7. Glue a small dried ear of corn for the nose.
| Iroquois Mask |
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Background Information
An injured or ill Iroquois India would sometimes ask the False Face Society to drive away the spirit of the illness or injury. The False Face Society wore masks carved from wood. After a new member joined the False Face Society he had to make his own mask.
To make the mask the Iroquois walked through the woods until he found a tree whose spirit talked to him. After talking to the tree, the Indian built a fire. He sprinkled tobacco, then stripped bark from the tree. Next the Indian outlined a face and cut out the section to the tree he had outlined. Then the Iroquois went into a secluded shelter to carve the mask. The mask was polished then decorated with hair, feathers, etc.
Have students make a mask from a Styrofoam meat container, yard, felt, and feathers.
| Bowl Game |   |
Background Information
The Iroquois Indians played the Sacred Bowl Game during the last day of the "Ceremonial of Midwinter" which marked the end of the year. The wooden bowl was decorated with four clan symbols - the bear, wolf, turtle, and deer. To play the game a player placed the six nuts which were colored on one side inside the bowl and hit the bowl against the ground. If five of the six pits turned up the same color, the player scored and took another turn. The first player to reach 10 points wins the game.
Directions for making the Bowl Game
1. Cut a circle from Contact paper to fit inside a basket paper plate holder. The wood grain Contact paper looks bests.
2. Have students use black markers to decorate the circle.
3. Peel the paper backing from the Contact paper and place the circle into the holder.
4. Gather six flat nuts in the shell or peach pits. Have students color one side of the nuts with the black marker.
Moccasins
