Native Indians Americans

We are studying US History this year, and this pretty much started with the Native Americans. I grew up in an era in which we called them Indians. During our lessons, Austin has made it his job to correct me on this as they were not Indians. How would we feel after all, if we were invaded by people speaking a different language calling us Russians or Greeks. Okay, point made...I will make every effort to not disrespect them any further by calling them Indians.

I really like US History, maybe because it is here on home soil or just closer on the timeline so that I can recognize events and names a little easier. I mean I really drew a blank when we studied places like Ancient Japan and the Shoguns.

Back to the Native Americans. Wow, there were a lot of tribes in the North America. Really a lot (estimated to be between 700 & 1,000+). We studied them by geographic region, essentially selecting two of the more prominent tribes from four areas.

Our selected tribes were:
Northeastern Woodland Indians - Powhatan (Pocahontas) and the Iroquois
Southeastern Woodland Indians - Cherokee and Seminole
Southwestern Indians - Sioux and Apache
Northwestern Indians - Chinooks and Yuroks

Since we live in the Georgia, the Cherokee were probably the easiest to study. In fact, we were able to attend a field trip at Unicoi State Park for a demonstration of Native Cherokee Americans artifacts.

We started with a nature scavenger hunt. Here are Austin, Matthew, and Caleb looking for their items.

Here are some items used by Cherokee Americans. The small basket was very interesting, it is made of pine needles (plenty of those in the South). There are people who still make these bowls and other instruments shown. The bowls are supposed to be very flexible and yet sturdy and long lasting. I cannot imagine the time it must have taken to make these.

Here is a picture of some leaves used for medicinal purposes such as; stomach pains, coughing, contraception, etc. Pretty multi-purpose there.

Our guide demonstrated how to use a blow gun.


Then the all the children were taken outside and allowed to try their luck with a spear. It actually had a better name than that, but it slips my mind at the moment.

I love being able to see and feel something that we are studying, it really helps to bring it to life and makes it much more enjoyable and memorable. At least I hope. :-)