Moccasins – Room 2

Leave bench under PAWL descriptions empty. Leave bench in front of mural free if able to.

If must use bench in front of mural:

“You guys are my nomads. By choosing to sit there you are my nomads. Do you know what a nomad is? You learned that Paleo & Archaic are hunter, gathers, fishers. What does that tell us about them (that’s how they got their food). If we are a tribe, and we start eating all the food. What happens when we run out of food (we 1) die or 2) move. Who wants to move?) (if say – we hunt, then say can hunt all we want, will still not have any food. It’s all gone.)

Paleo & Archaics moved a lot. They did not have permanent house because they followed the food source. We call people who move from place to place and do not have a permanent home, a nomad.

Right now, I need to use this wall, so you can not sit there. Whenever I need to use the mural behind you, and you will need to move. So you are my nomads.

Do we still have nomads today? Yes – Asia, Middle East, and other places.

We are going to talk about the Woodland and Late Prehistoric in here.

  • If you were to “plop down” in the Paleo period, would it look similar to today? (No – glaciers; cold)
  • What about the Archaic period (No; still glaciers)
  • During the Woodland and Late Prehistoric periods, it would look like today. You would not really notice a difference except it would be all woods.

They were still hunter, gather, fishers, but one thing changed their lives and changed the rest of the generations. That is that they started farming.

  • What did they start farming (corn, beans, squash – The Three Sisters). They were called Three sisters because they worked together (symbiotic) they were stronger together than they were separately.
  • They would clear a 30cm circle. In bottom put a piece of fish for fertilizer. Then they would ad a piece of corn. After the corn has grown a little, they add the bean, and then the squash.
  • What is the biggest risk of losing the corn crop? That the stalk would be knocked over. The bean they put in the ground would climb around the corn stalk, making it stronger. This also allowed the bean to have somewhere to climb, giving it a bigger yield. Last, the squash grew on the ground and kept the soil moist, so the corn and bean had water and did not dry out. (in july/Aug, grass gets dry. Why? Because do not get much water.)

The farming changed the world for them, because now they are not relying solely on hunting, etc to survive. So now you get half your food, or 2/3 of your food from the food you grow. Do you run out of deer and other animals you hunt as soon as you did before? Do you run out of berries and nuts as fast? (No). No, because you have an alternate food source.

Since you don’t need to move, you stay longer, and start building permanent houses, instead of the temporary (??) houses from before. They made Wigwams and longhouses.

When you have extra time on your hands, what do you do? How many of you come up with creative things you could do? When you have free time, you come up with creative ideas. You do art, invent things, etc. So these guys have extra time since they are no longer moving, and started inventing things.

  • “Maybe there’s a better way to hunt?” And they invent the bow & arrow.
  • Remember bowl made from rock in other class? Took weeks to make. So they notice that clay hardens when it dries, and invent pottery for bowls instead of rocks. And they have still more time.

Late Prehistoric came (pre-written word), we called Whittlesey Focus. We don’t know what they were called because they were gone by the time we got here. So we call them Whittlesey, after Professor Whittlesey who studied them for most of their life and wrote several books about them. And they add even more inventions.

[have nomads move]

I love this mural. And use it to teach from , but I have one thing I don’t agree with on this mural.

  • How many of you have something you really love? Has anyone tried to take it from you? Because when we have things that people like, others try to take it.
  • Do you think if they started building houses, villages, and garden that somebody would want them? So people started to invade them so they had to protect themselves, they built a wall. (How many of you lock you door at night? Because you don’t want someone to get in.)
  • But they did not put a door in it. They put break in the wall. But this short of a break would not be much protection. The wall was really longer.

Demo: girls in front. A couple of boys to protect. Rest in back.

  • Boys in front: The other men are out hunting. You stay behind to protect the women
  • Boys in back: you want their village. You want their houses to live in and the women to cook your dinner at night. And you know the men are out hunting so you decide to invade today. What are you invading with (bow & arrow)
  • Short aisle -> boys attack (kill all the front boys). Girls, you just got captured. It’s 3 against 6 (ie)
  • Long aisle (use teachers): Only way in is through this long thin wall. Have to go down single file one at a time. (to boys in front: they are coming single file, just shoot them as they come in) All die.
  • Can you see how it’s 1 vs 3 when come in single file. So they die.
  • Do you see why this timof opening would not have done much good and they would need a long thin aisle?

Boys all come home from hunting and say “honey I’m home”, through the deer on the ground. Now the women have to figure out what to do with the deer. What parts of the deer could they use?

We want to use all the parts of the deer. We do not want to waste anything. What could we do with the deer?

  • Meat
  • Antlers – tools (refer to knapper in wigwam) his job is to make things. He takes the antler and hits it against flint and turn them into tools. (pass basket of flint)
  • Scraping tool to scrape fur off of deer.
  • Spear head
  • Arrowhead
  • Drill – one use is to drill holes into rocks and make gorget
  • Bones – show some of the items made from bones (needle, comb, awl) – can use bones for various tools. They used the top of the skull as sppons.
  • Sinew – tissue that ties muscle to bone (aka tendons). Sinew is made from the ligaments and tendons of an animal's body. When wet, it is malleable and can be used to wrap around objects to hold together. (ie. Ax to handle) Once it tried, it shrank and was very strong, holding whatever you wrapped it around in place. When dried they would use it like we would use thread or rope today – sewing, bowstrings, etc
  • Skin (pass skins) – blankets, clothes, house, etc. To make waterproof, would scrape off fur, then rub the deer’s brains on it and leave in the sun to “cure”
  • Hooves – very hard, may have used for tools, ornamentals, etc
  • Bladder – water bottle (tie off bottom, rinse out, fill with water and tie off top. Boys, have water bottle for tomorrow)

Build houses

  • Would their tools work on big trees? (No) So used small trees to make the tree. For outside, used whatever natural resource has available (bark-soft when wet so molded then let dry; reeds-wove; tanned animal skin

Mural