My Native American Project

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My Native American Project
J'men
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Navajo Shelter
The Navajos used the teepee-shaped but used by
the Navajo Indians will shed the rain. To build
this shack interlock three forked sticks as shown
in the diagram, then lay other poles up against
the forks of these sticks so that the butts of
the poles will form a circle on the ground Thatch
this with any material handy, after which you may
cover it with dirt as the Navajos do, in which
case you had better build a hallway for entrance.
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Food
food
In the basic four Navajo food groups, there is
the Navajo corn and wheat category. That's bread
and cereals to the mainstream. It includes kneel
down bread, Navajo cake, Navajo pancakes, blue
dumplings, blue bread, hominy, steam corn, roast
corn, wheat sprouts and squash blossoms stuffed
with blue corn mush.
In the basic four Navajo food groups, there is
the Navajo corn and wheat category. That's bread
and cereals to the mainstream. It includes kneel
down bread, Navajo cake, Navajo pancakes, blue
dumplings, blue bread, hominy, steam corn, roast
corn, wheat sprouts and squash blossoms stuffed
with blue corn mush.
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Clothing
The Navajo woman's traditional style of dress
consists usually of foot or knee-high moccasins,
a pleated velvet or cotton skirt, a matching
long-sleeve blouse, concho and/or sash belt,
jewelry and a shawl. Men also wear jewelry,
moccasins and preferably a velveteen shirt.
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Weapons
Navajo hunters used bows and arrows. In war,
Navajo men fired their bows or fought with spears
and rawhide shields. Navajo tools included wooden
hoes and rakes for farming, spindles and looms
for weaving, and pump drills for boring holes in
turquoise and other beads.
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Navajo Map
The Navajo are natives of the Four Corners region
Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado. The
Navajo people are still living in their
traditional territory today.
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Customs
The Navajo are people very geared toward family
life and events that surround their lifestyle. 
Many games and traditions have emerged from their
love of the land and their attachment to it. 
Long winter nights and the seclusion of the
reservation has brought about most of the customs
and activities used by the People to entertain
and amuse themselves. Some commonly played games
by the adults and children include the moccasin
game, stick-dice game, winter string games, and
several variations of games using simple playing
cards and sticks as counters.
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Tools
Tools/Weapons
The Navajo started silverwork in the late 1800s.
First they hammered Spanish and Mexican coins
into silver buttons. The buttons were sewn onto
their clothing and cut off when money was needed.
After the Treaty of 1868 the Navajo people were
given specialized tools for silver smiting. After
this they began making jewelry with turquoise
stones.
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Climate
The Navajo Nation, which is located on the
Colorado Plateau, is arid to semi-arid. The
annual precipitation in most areas is less than
10 inches. The Navajo Nation is known for having
very cold winters and very hot summers, with an
annual average temperature of about 40ºF to 55ºF.
Climatic patterns vary from south to north across
the Colorado Plateau. Much of the northern
Plateau shares a climatic regime with the Great
Basin. The region generally lies outside the
typical major pathways of winter and summer
moisture-bearing masses.
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Cherokee Tribe Shelter
Every village had about 350-600 people. Many
Cherokee villages were along the banks of rivers.
Each Cherokee village had people from different
clans. Most of the time, grandparents, parents
and children lived together. In the middle of
every village was a council house made of
saplings (young trees) and mud. The Cherokee
would gather at the council house for parties,
political assemblies and religious ceremonies.
Bunched around the council house was a collection
of homes.
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Food
They hunted bear. The bear was used for meat and
tools. Sometimes they used it for trading. They
also hunted deer and elk. They ate the meat, used
the skins, and made tools from the antlers and
bones. The hunters could hit a fly (if it was
still) from 30 thirty feet away! They hunted
turtles, too. They made the shells into rattles
and ate the rest of the meat. They made nets and
other traps to catch many types of fish. They
also hunted rabbits and ate them.
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Clothing
The Cherokees didn't wear long headdresses like
the Sioux. Cherokee men usually shaved their
heads except for a single scalp lock. Sometimes
they would also wear a porcupine roach. Cherokee
women always wore their hair long, cutting it
only in mourning for a family member. Men
decorated their faces and bodies with tribal
tattoo art and also painted themselves bright
colors in times of war.
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weaons
Cherokee hunters used bows and arrows or blowguns
to shoot game. Fishermen generally used spears
and fishing poles. Warriors fired arrows or
fought with a melee weapon like a tomahawk or
spear. Other important tools used by the Cherokee
Indians included stone adzes (hand axes for
woodworking), flint knives for skinning animals,
wooden hoes for farming, and pots and baskets for
storing corn.
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Cherokee Map
The Cherokees are original residents of the
American southeast region, particularly Georgia,
North and South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and
Tennessee. Most Cherokees were forced to move to
Oklahoma in the 1800's along the Trail of Tears.
Descendants of the Cherokee Indians who survived
this death march still live in Oklahoma today.
Some Cherokees escaped the Trail of Tears by
hiding in the Appalachian hills or taking shelter
with sympathetic white neighbors.
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Customs
The Cherokee Nation today occupies all or part of
14 counties of what is now the northeastern
portion of the state of Oklahoma. Not considered
a reservation, the land falls under what has been
called "a checkerboard jurisdiction," with one
farm or acreage falling under tribal jurisdiction
while its neighbor is under that of the state. A
second and separate federally recognized tribal
government for Cherokees, the United Keetoowah
Band of Cherokees in Oklahoma, exists in the same
area.
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Climate
At the base of the Great Smoky Mountains live a
people whose ancestors came to America thousands
of years before Columbus. Ancient tribes followed
large animals over a land bridge from Asia when
the seas had frozen into glaciers during the last
Ice-age, making the oceans shallow. Tribes hunted
the large animals with stone tipped spears, then
roasted their meat over fires in coastal caves
and rustic abodes.
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Chinook Tribe Shelter
The Chinooks in the coastal villages of
rectangular cedar-plank houses with bark roofs.
Usually these houses were large (up to 70 feet
long) and each one housed an entire extended
family. Today some old-fashion houses are still
made from cedar wood.
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Tools
Weapons
Chinook fishermen used harpoons and nets. Hunters
used bows and arrows, and trappers set snares. In
war, Chinook men fired their bows or fought with
spears and war clubs. Chinook warriors would wear
armor made of hardened elk hide to protect
themselves from enemy archers.
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Clothing
The Chinooks didn't wear long headdresses like
the Sioux. Instead, both men and women sometimes
wore a basket hat made of finely woven spruce
root. The Chinooks sometimes painted their faces,
using different designs for war, religious
ceremonies, and mourning, and women also wore
tribal tattoos in geometric designs.
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Food
The Chinook Indians were fishing people. Their
staple food was salmon. Chinook men also caught
many other kinds of fish and sea mammals from
their canoes and hunted deer, birds, and small
game on land. Chinook women gathered clams and
shellfish, seaweed, berries, and roots.
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Climate
The Chinook climate isnt to hot. Or it isnt to
cold. In the summer it is hot and in the winter
it is cold. The rivers freezes.
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Customs
There were three brothers and their younger
cousin, who was very poor. He was full of lice.
He had no mother, only a grandmother. The two
eldest brothers knew how to win in the game at
disks. When the summer approached the grandmother
spun twine out of willow bark. The people hired
her to spin bark. Then she kept a little for
herself. At last she made a large rope.
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Map
The Chinook Indians are original people of the
Pacific Northwest Coast. They live in Washington
state.
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Sioux Tribe Shelter
The Dakota and Lakota people lived in large
buffalo-hide tents called tipis (or teepees).
Tipis were carefully designed to set up and break
down quickly. An entire Sioux village could be
packed up and ready to move within an hour.
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Weapons and Tools
Sioux warriors used bows and arrows, spears, war
clubs, and buffalo-hide shields. Hunters also
used snares, and when Lakota or Dakota men hunted
buffalo, they often set controlled fires to herd
the animals into traps or over cliffs.
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Clothing and Food
originally the Lakota and Dakota Indians were
corn farmers as well as hunters, but once they
acquired horses they mostly gave up farming, and
moved frequently to follow the seasonal
migrations of the buffalo herds.
Sioux women wore long deerskin or elk skin
dresses. Sioux men wore breechcloths and leggings
and buckskin shirts.
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Map
The original Lakota/Dakota homelands were in what
is now Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North and South
Dakota.
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Bibliography
www.angelfire.com www.historyforkids.org www.chino
ok.htm www.bigorrin.org www.native-languages.org
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Summary
Navajo Indians wore small and thin clothing
because the climate is so hot and dry. The Sioux
Indians wore long clothing because it was cold
and they needed to stay warm. The Chinook wore
casual clothing because it wasnt cold or hot.
The Cherokee Indians wore short clothing because
it was dry, the men also shaved their heads.