The Native Americans

                   The Native Americans

Work Group 2

Chiara,Gennaro,Benedetta,Martina,Francesca e Roksana.

THE NATIVE AMERICANS OF THE FORESTS AND DESERT.

Native Americans were often grouped into tribes or nations. These groupings were generally based on peoples that shared the same culture, language, religion, customs, and politics.

    Pueblo.        

The Pueblo are natives of the Southwest deserts, particularly New Mexico.

Pueblo is pronounced "PWAY-bloh." This just means "town" or "village" in Spanish, and was originally used to refer to the Indian cliff dwellings and large adobe house complexes of the Southwestern Indian tribes.

In the past, the Pueblo Indians had a theocratic government.

Originally, Pueblo men didn't wear much clothing-- only breechcloths or short kilts. Pueblo women wore knee-length cotton dresses called mantas. Men and women both wore deerskin moccasins on their feet. For dances and special occasions, women painted their moccasins white and wrapped white strips of deerskin called puttee around their shins as leggings.

 

Iroquois.

The Iroquois ate a variety of foods. They grew crop such as corn, beans, and squash. Women generally farmed the fields and cooked the meals.

The men of the Iroquois Nation shaved their heads except for a strip down the middle. Even though this is called a Mohawk haircut today, many of the Iroquois tribesmen (not just the Mohawk) cut their hair like this. Girls would wear two braids in their hair until they got married, then they would have a single braid. 
The men hunted wild game including deer, rabbit, turkey, bear, and beaver.

Huron.

The Huron people, also called Wyandot, were a Northeast American Indian tribe who were originally from Quebec. The name is somewhat derogatory and was given to them by the French which translates to "wild boar".The Huron Indians were divided into numerous clans.The Huron Indians looked up to the Iroquois and imitated their skills in building.Corn was a primary crop that was grown by the Hurons.

Some of the clothing they wore consisted of deerskin shirts, breechcloths, leggings, skirts, and moccasin shoes. During the winter when it was cold, they used fur to trap in the extra heat. The Hurons were very decorative with their clothing. They often used a lot of painted designs and would fringe the edges of their leggings, skirts, and shirts. When they painted their faces, they would use vegetable and mineral dyes mixed with sunflower oil or bear fat in order to produce the colors red, black, violet, and green.

It is also interesting to note the ways in which they cared for their children. The Huron Indian believe that their children were the future of the tribe. Taking full advantage of this notion, the children were educated at a very young age. The boys would go out every once in a while with the men and learn how to hunt and gather food, while the girls would learn how to plant crops, store food, cook, sew, make pottery, and weave baskets and nets. When the children were babies, mothers cared a great deal for their health and made sure that they could chew and swallow their food. In order to make it easier, mothers of the tribe would chew the food first to break it down, and then give it to the infant to digest easier. 

 Finally, another interesting aspect of the Huron Indians is the way in which they celebrated dead. When a member of their tribe passes away, they hold a feast for relatives and friends. Wrapping up the corpse in furs, they would place it on top of litter inside of the village and mourn. After several days, they would move the litter to a nearby cemetery where they would build a small cabin over the corpse.