Tthese are sashes which have been finger woven.They are worn around the leg above the knees.They could be used as bandages,slings,and other things.Mostly they were worn as a decoration and as a way of each persions manner of dressing.

Here we have 3 diffrent knives.The first is a antler bone handel knife.Next is what is called a Flint River Knife.Then we come to a knife made using a file as a blade.This is a common thing to use for making knife blades.it has a cacti handel.All three knives are usefull and could possiable have been found in the trading post.

Here are two diffrent styles of mocks.The first are my soft bottom mock's,Knee high hard sole mock's.Each are comfortable and usefull.I would not wear my soft mock's out in the bush or in the mountains,Only around the camp or in the lodge.But the hard sole ones can and are worn everywhere.They must be cared for by keeping them clean and oiled.Bees wax is used on the seams.Snake Stomper made his mock's.Mine were a gift from Cookie ,Sanke Stompers son.

We see our tipee,it is very big and roomy.We stayed in it during a very good wind and sand storm at a boy scout event.It did not give and was quite snug.

A Tipii with a fire in it,This one belongs to a friend and was being used in the early spring at a boy scout event.The fire kept it warm and one could cook in it.

A woman scraping a deer hide,This was the way to prepair the hides for use,wheather it be for clothes,shoes,or some other item.The Mountain Men knew how to prepair the hides also and had to do so to keep them till they could get to a trading post or a centrial place to trade them in for supplies and money.

This is how a village would look during the 18 hundreds.As you can see two trapers have landed on the shore and are being greated by the elder of the tribe.

This is a wood shake lodge.Any of these lodges could have been made by a Mountain Man as well as the Native Americans.

We see some people in period outfits.In the background you see some hides hanging on a cross pole.As well as a a-frame lodge.

A encampment with several diffrent styles of lodges.

Welcome my children to the lodge of Wolf Song Woman.

Among these pages i shall teach you the life of the people as the Great Father has taught us.Set and listen my children.

This page is dedicated to cooking and what the people used.eat.

Please try some of these recepies as they are quite good cooked over a open fire.

Traditional camping meats were bacon,salt pork,smoked ham,dried or corned beef,smoked,salt,or dried fish,and the game available.Breadstuff were:biscuits,flapjacks,Banncock or fry bread,corn bread,and hard tack.Common vegetables were:beans,hominy,rice and peas.

Canned goods were available in the middel 18 hundred's.Every trading post of any size had a dairy heard,and milk,butter,cheese were usually avaliable.Powdered milk was used in recepies after the CivilWar.

So as you can see there were lots of things to pick from.

As to ways of cooking this too was varried from open fire to using a dutch oven,a bean hole,baking in ashes,or cooking on a stick.

Hint for a substitute for baking powder:use white wood ashes from the fire and mix with flower in the same quanity as baking soda.

_______.

Here we see a fire ring set up for cooking.A big pot of coffee,several dutch ovens and the utensials to cook with. Here is a covered waggon,it is called a chuck waggon for it supplied the chuck or food for the people.This waggon might follow the men to a centrial place and the men would go out from there to trap.

***********************RECEPIE's*********************

Biscuits***

3 pints of flour

3 heaping t.baking powder

1 heaping t.salt

2 heaping t.grease(LARD)

Scant pint water

Add baking powder to flour and stir in,then stir in salt.Add grease and stir untill lumps are GONE.Stir in water and mix into a dough.Make into biscuits,and bake in a dutch oven for 15 minutes.

CORN BATTER CAKES******

1 cup of corn meal

1/2 cup flour

1 1/2 t.baking powder

2 t. sugar or huney(molasses may be used)

1 t.salt

Mix all together,adding cold water gradually while stiring.Batter should be thick.Fry like pancakes.

Deep fried steak*******

Slice any kind of meat paper thin and drop into a kettle of very hot grease (OIL may be used)for 1/2 minute.

Gravy******
And excellent gravy can be made from the meat drippings.Added to water and salt.Flour can be added,and choped fried onions are a nice addation.

Fried Rabbit**********

Parbroil carcuss 15 minutes.Cut off legs at upper joint,and back in 3 pieces.Roll in flour and fry in greased skillet.

********************************

JAMBALAYA************

Cut up small game in joints and stew.After 20 minuets,add pork,ham,or bacon,1 cup of rice,onions,tomators if avaliable.simmer about 1/2 hour or untill the rice is tender.

*********************************

CHOWDER********

Brown 5 sliced onions in grease in a kettel.Add 5 pounds fish and 5 pounds sliced potatoes.Cover with water and cook till done.

RICE WITH ONIONS************

Fry chopped onions and place in a pot with rice and water.Cook rice as usual.Tis is a tasty dish and the aroma is also inviting.

******************

VENISON SOUP*************

Cook 4-5 pounds of deer ribs in a bucket of water untill only half of the stock remains.Add one can of tomatoes,1/2 cup of rice and cook for about an hour or untill rice is done.Salt to taste.

******************************

Beaver Tail************

Impale beaver tail on a sharp stick and broil over hot coals for a few minuets.The rough scally hide will blister and come off in sheets,leaving the tail clean and white.It may now be boiled or rosted.While we realize this was a delicacy it is realy very greasy and gristly.The fatty content was probably the reasion for its popularity.

There were plenty of starving time and frequently game was scarce.Deep snow,bad weather,hostile indians,and other calamities caused a miss meal.Winter,snow,and mountains provided the worst chance for starvation.

MEAT BISCUIT*************

4 cups flour

1 T. salt

Broth(juice from meat including fat)

Mix flour and salt.Add enough brouth to make a stiff paste.Press out in thin sheet(about 1/4 inch thick)score into 2 1/2" squares,bake slowly.

*************

A survival drink was paunch.Men dying of thirst would,if lucky,shoot a buffalo,remove its stomach,and drink the contents.

Cabbage*************

Wilt cabbage in grease and fry untill tender.

Some items were traded for with the friendly Native Americans:

Cabbage,peas,corn, green beans,pumpkin,hominy....As well as meat.

Pumpkin Hominy**************

Pounded dried pumpkin,added to boiling hominy and cook two hours.Eat hot with milk and sugar.

Rosting Ears**************

Dig a trench a foot wide and as long as needed,say 2 feet.Build a fire in the trench and let it burn to a good bead of live coals.Put a stone at each end of the trench and lay a stout green stick them.Then lay the ears,with husks still covering them,like rafters,from the stick to the ground.Turn the ears 2 or 3 times,and rosast them for an hour or so.Any leftover can be cut from the cob and dried.

Occasionally fresh corn was eaten raw,but that was only in emergencies.

FRIED GREEN BEANS**************

Boil whole green beans untill tender.Drain and fry in lard,grease,or oil.

***********************************

Frog Legs*********

Skin the legs and boil them on pointed sticks or fry in greased skillet.

*****************************

Small Animals**********

Animals like groundhog,raccon,and opossum were always cleaned,parboiled with salt and peper,then baked,fried,or rosted.

Woodchuck Chuck Groundhog or Woodchuck 1 green pepper 1 red pepper 2 cloves of garlic 1 lg. Onion 2 carrots 3 potatoes Hand full of pigweed Preparation: Clean and fillet meat, cut into 1" chunks put into 3 quart pot, 3/4 full of water,Add peppers, potatoes, pigweed, garlic, carrots, onion.Salt and pepper to taste. Note: If you don’t upchuck from the woodchuck then it was good chuck Servings: Three - Four

Bear Meat**********

Cut bear meat in strips and dry before fire.Pound the meat till it crumbles.Boil to a thick soup and serve with grits or cornbread.

Baked Apples*********

Bury apples in embers abd let cook untill tender---up to an hour.

Beverages************

Maple sap fresh from the tap was a forvorite drink.

Dried berries,maple sugar and water boiled together was also drank.

Corn Coffee*********

Place dried corn on the cob over the fire and rost it untill the kernels turn brown.Put the ear in enough water to cover it and boil for half hour.Drink the liquid.

Honey Water*********

The woodland tribes dissolved a tablespoon of honey in a cup of warm water and used this as a drink with meals.

Sassafras Tea*************

The roots of this common plant makes an excellent beverage.Prepared sassafras is avalable in most stores.Pour boiling water over chips and allow to steep for 5 minuets.

Rose Hip Tea************

The Plains tribes often made a medicinal chock full of vitamin C from dried rose hips.

Well my children i hope you have found a dish to try and enjoy.it is my hope that i have offered you something of use here in.

A camp might be set up something like this.

OSIYU-(hello)

Welcome my children,Come, set with me by the fire.Listen to the stories of your grandfathers and grandmothers , Learn of the ways of the people.I am Singing Wolf,daugther of the Cherokee.Keeper of the stories and life of the people.Listen all to what i say.Keep it in your hearts always.So the old ways do not fade away into the sky as the smoke from the fire drifts up to the stars above.Look my children at all the great chiefs that have come before.All the camp fires in the sky.Many a council is setting now as we speek.

***How the Birds Came to Have Colored Feathers****

It was cold,so cold and all the birds were shivering and shaking.They were cold,why you ask,well they had no feathers.So the birds held a great council ,birds from all over the land came to set in council to see what could be done to help warm them,Why would the great father send us cold with no way to warm ourselves.This is something they talked of for a long time.Owl (so wise and knowing)Thought that the Great Father had made a mistake and had sent to cold by mistake.The crow(sassy and trickster)Insisted that the Great Father had sent the cold to make them run around and dance and look silly.So may thoughts so much chatter.Till the Buzzard spoke up and said why don't we go ask the Great Father why he sent the cold to us.

All the birds nodded,such a wise thought.Who should go they thought.It is such a far away place,one might never get there or get back.Owl stood up,I think buzzard should go and speak for us.All the birds nodded.So the buzzard set off on the journey.

He flew up and up and up till he could not see land.,,,,,He came to a great hall,filled with many beings,some he knew,the deer,the bision,the wolf.....All wating to have audiance with the Great Father.The buzzard waited his turn and then he was ussered before the father.

Aw my son,buzzard what bring's you so far from your lodge and friends?

Father -all the birds have held council and asked me to come to you and ask why you have sent the cold to us.We have no way of warming ourselves.The cold is sent to give the flowers and trees a time for sleep my son.But i see why you have come and i have a gift for all my bird children.

He took buzzard to a big room filled with all the colors of the rainbow,Suits of feathers hung on pegs and fluttered in the breeze.Here my son,take these to my children and they will not be cold anymore.So the buzzard brought down all the fine feathered clothes and the birds put them on.The crow picked a black robe that fit him just right.The robin a robe or blue and red.The Buzzard picked one that left his head bare.He felt he had been to the land of the father and he was so honored that he held his head up high and needed nothing on it.So as to show to all how diffrent and special he felt he was.

There was a great shout and much feasting and dancing and rejoicing to the Great Father and to Buzzard for bringing them the warm colored feather robes.

So my children this is how the birds came to have so many diffrent colored feathers. And the buzzard had a bald head.

This storie tells us to get ready for the winter and that even the Great Father gave to his bird children a way to keep warm.To us he bids to gather food and build strong lodges and to gather firs and make leather for clothes.So my children you too can be clothed as colofull as the birds,But never to become as vain as the buzzard.

------------

**********************How the people came to have fire**************************

All the people were gathered in a big lodge,there were the birds,deer,bear,bison,wolf,spiders,possum's all the people,all the Great Fathers children were there.It was very cold and dark,it was raining and the animals were shivering.A great cry went up to the Great Father from all the voices of his children and he looked down and saw them huddeled in the great lodge shivering with cold.He felt great sadness and pain for them.So he decided to send down fire for his children to use to warm themselves.

There was a great crack of thunder and a bright blinding flash of light and there in the middel of the lake on a island in the middel of a dead tree fire rested.Awating for the people to come get it so it could warm them.

The people saw this but did not know how to go get the fire.They held a great council and many animals spoke up with ideas and sudgestions on how to get fire to the lodge.

Wolf said,we can flot a raft of twigs over to fire and it can jump on and float back to us.Owl(so wise and knowing)shook his head,but will not the raft burn with fire on it and the fire fall into the lake?I know said crow,I will fly over there and pick it up with my claw and bring it back! Yes-Yes-Yes,all the people cried.

So crow flew over to the island to get fire.He landed on a tree limb and jumped down into the hole in the tree to get to fire.But it was very hot and smoky and he could not see the fire.He had to climb out and his buetiful white feathers were singed black from the heat and smoke.(This is how crow came to be black)He flew back to the lodge and said i can not get to fire it is too hot and smoky,look what has happened to my white feathers.

I will go said the possem,I can reach down in the tree with my tail anf grab the fire and swim back with it over my back.So a great cry went up for possem,AI-EEE,AI-EEE everyone cried.

So possem swam over to the island and climed the tree and reached down with his tail to grab the fire but when he touched it his tail cought on fire and he jumped up and ran to the water and stuck his tail in.All his fur had burned off his tail.(this is how possem came to have no hair on his tail).So he swam back to the lodge without the fire.

All the people were so sad and unhappy.How can we get the fire if we can not see it or grab it ask the deer.A great cry arose from the people,then from a corner of the lodge came a small voice.I can get the fire,said the mother spider.

You owl asked,how can one so small get the fire when others have failed.I will swim over to the island and climb down to the fire and carry it back on my back.

But the fire will burn you,said the possem.How will you carry it back even if you do get to it ,asked the crow,.rubbing at his singed feathers.

I will build a bowl out of my web and carry the fire back in it.on my back replied mother spider.

So a great cry came up from the people,,everyone sang and chanted for Mother Spider,AI-EEE Mother Spider,AI-EEE

So Mother spider swam over to the island and climbed into the tree from a hole near the bottom close to the fire and spun a bowl out of her web and picked up a bit of fire and placed it in the web bowl.She swam back to the people and placed fire in the fireplace.It started up and a great cheer went up for Mother spiderAI-EEEE,AI-EEEE all the people chanted for Mother Spider and for the fire that the Great Father had sent to them.So to this day this is why Mother spider has the mark of a bowl on her back.To remind everyone of the good thing she had done.

And this is how the People of the world came to have fire.And Mother Spider came to be a hero of her people.

So my children,it is not only the smartest,bravest,strongest that do the great deeds but the ones that try the most.

--------

When Medicine came into being

At one time, animals and people lived together peaceably and talked with each other.
Then mankind began to multiply rapidly,the animals were crowded into forests and deserts.

Man began to kill the animals for their skins and furs,not just for food.
The animals became angry at this,saying they must
punish mankind.

The bear tribe met in council, presided over by Old White Bear, their Chief. After several
bears had spoken against mankind for their bloodthirsty ways, war was unanimously agreed
upon. But what kinds of weapons should the bears use?

Chief Old White Bear suggested that man's weapon, the bow and arrow, should be turned
against him. All of the council agreed. While the bears worked and made bows and arrows,
they wondered what to do about bowstrings. One of the bears sacrificed himself to provide
the strings, while the others searched for good arrow- wood.

When the first bow was completed and tried, the bear's claws could not release the
strings to shoot the arrow. One bear offered to cut his claws, but Chief Old White Bear
would not allow him to do that, because without claws he could not climb trees for food and
safety. He might starve.

The deer tribe called together its council led by Chief Little Deer. They decided that any
Indian hunters, who killed deer without asking pardon in a suitable manner, should be
afflicted with painful rheumatism in their joints.

After this decision, Chief Little Deer sent a messenger to their nearest neighbours, the
Cherokee Indians.

"From now on, your hunters must first offer a prayer to the deer before killing him," said
the messenger. "You must ask his pardon, stating you are forced only by the hunger needs
of your tribe to kill the deer. Otherwise, a terrible disease will come to the hunter."

When a deer is slain by an Indian hunter, Chief Little Deer will run to the spot and ask
the slain deer's spirit, "Did you hear the hunter's prayer for pardon?"

If the reply is yes, then all is well and Chief Little Deer returns to his cave. But if the
answer is no, then the Chief tracks the hunter to his lodge and strikes him with the
terrible disease of rheumatism, making him a helpless cripple unable to hunt again.

All the fishes and reptiles then held a council and decided they would haunt those Cherokee
Indians, who tormented them, by telling them hideous dreams of serpents twining around
them and eating them alive. These snake and fish dreams occurred often among the
Cherokees. To get relief, the Cherokees pleaded with their Shaman to banish their
frightening dreams if they no longer tormented the snakes and fish.

Now when the friendly plants heard what the animals had decided against mankind, they
planned a countermove of their own. Each tree, shrub, herb, grass, and moss agreed to
furnish a cure for one of the diseases named by the animals and insects.

Thereafter, when the Cherokee Indians visited their Shaman about their ailments and if
the medicine man was in doubt, he communed with the spirits of the plants. They always
suggested a proper remedy for mankind's diseases.

This was the beginning of plant medicine from nature among the Cherokee Indian nation a
long, long time ago.

ECHO IN THE WIND

A poem-

Echo in the Wind
Can you hear the echo,
in every wind that blows?
Can you hear the warriors cry,
deep within your soul?
Remember the seventh generation,
let us plan for them today.
Remember how we were forced to change,
and have slowly lost our way.
It's easy to say we haven't changed,
but harder to face the fact
While our leaders have become the white man,
And the People still look back.

Can you hear the echo,
in every heartbeat's drum?
Can you hear your spirit guide,
or are you just too numb?
Remember who you are my brothers,
The People, strong and true.
Remember the Gods of you fathers,
learn from all they knew.
It's easy to walk the Jesus road,
much harder the Circle to feel.
As our leaders have become the white man,
and The People seek what's real.

Can you hear the echo,
isn't it time to make a stand?
Can you hear the children's voice,
raised throughout the land?
Remember who the humans were,
when white man met with red.
Remember what all the greed has done,
and why it was better to be dead.
It's easy to think of peace,
and harder to speak of war
When our leaders have become the white man,
and The People are no more.

Trail of Tears, Sand Creek, Wounded Knee,
names that won't be stilled.
The echoes are from the innocent,
The People that were killed.
The People who just said no,
and fought for you and me.
The People who gave their lives,
in hopes that we'd be free.
Can't you hear the echo,
as you watch the children grow?
Can't you hear the echo,
in every wind that blows?

Dedicated to Thunderbolt
By Gerald Unegawaya Tobery

####### CHEROKEE LEGEND - How the Earth Was Made#######

The Indians believe that in the beginning all living things lived and dwelled above in the sky -- Galun' lati. Which
was above the sky vault. But after awhile the sky vault began to be crowded with all the people and animals. Finally
someone asked what was below the ocean that they could see from their home in the sky, and at last Dayuni'si,
"Beaver's Grandchild", the little water beetle, offered to go and see if it could learn. When it flew down from the
sky vault it darted in every direction over the surface of the water, but could find no fimr place to rest. The water
beetle dived to the bottom of the ocean and brought up some mud which began to grow and grow. It grew and spread
on every side until it became the island which we call the earth. It was afterward fastened to the sky with four giant
ropes, but no one remembers who did this. Not even the oldest of the oldest medicine men.

At first the earth was very flat and soft and wet. The animals were very anxious to get down to the earth so no one
would be pushed off the sky vault, so they sent out different birds to see if the earth was dry enough to live on.
These birds flew around ove the earth until they grew very tired but they could find no place where they didn't sink
up in the soft mud. All the people and animals were very discouraged, but after a long while they decided that the
earth had dried enough so they sent out the great buzzard. Now this buzzard was not an ordinary buzzard. He was
the grandfather of all buzzards. He flew all over the earth, low down near the ground, and the earth was still very
soft. When he reached the Cherokee Country he was very tired and his giant wings began to flap and strike the
ground. When his wings struck the earth there wsa a valley and where they turned up again thre was a mountain.
The animals above, seeing this, were afraid that the whole world would be mountains so they called the grandfather
buzzard back to the sky vault, but the heart of the Cherokee Country is full of mountains to this day.

When the earth was dry and the animals came down, it was still dark, so they got the sun and set it in a track to go
every day across the island from east to west. At first the sun was so close that all the animals like the have burned
up. Tsiska'gili, the Red Crawfish, had his shell scorched a bright red so that his meat was spoiled. And to this day
the Cherokee will not eat the meat of the Red Crawfish.

The conjure men put the sun another handbreadth higher in the air but it was still too hot. They raised it another and
yet again until they had raised it just under the sky arch. Then it was right and they left it so. This is why the
conjurers call the highest place, Bulkwa'gine Di'galun'latiyun; "the seventh height," because it is seven
handbreadths above the earth. Every day the sun goes along its track and at night returns to its starting place.

There is another world under this that is just like ours except that the winters are when we are having winter. The
streams that come down from the high mountain tops are the trails by which we can reach this underworld and the
springs at the heads of these streams are the doorways by which we enter. But no one can go to this world without
first being purified and fasting for a long time. He must also have for a guide one of the people who live in the other
world. We know that the seasons are different in this other world because the water in the springs ins always
warmer in the winter and cooler than the outer air in the summer.

When the animals and plants were first made--we do not know by whom--they were told by the Great One to watch
and keep awake for seven nights just as the young men fast and keep awake when they pray for their medicine to
work. The plants and animals tried to do this and nearly all were awake through and the first night, but the next
night several dropped off to sleep and then others as time went onuntil o the seventh night only the owl and the
panther and one or two others were yet awake. To these animals the Great One gave the power to see at night and
be able to prey on those that had fallen asleep and now must forever sleep, soon after the sun goes down. Of the
trees only the cedar, the pine, the spruce, the holly, and the laurel were awake to the end and to them it was given to
be always green and to be the best for making medicine. But to the others it was said, "Because you have not
endured to the end you shall lose your hair every winter."

Before the world was dry enough for all th people and animals to come down and live on it, all things lived and
talked in common. It was said by the myth keepers that when man was first created that there were only a brother
and sister, but that one day he struck her with a fish and she bore a child and every seven days another until there
was danger that there would not be enough room for all the new people, so it was then made that a woman would
only bring forth a child once every year.

When we wear our hair in
braids it represents our ties
to the
Earth and the tangible
world. When we wear our
hair free, we connect our
Spiritual Essences to the
Spirits that ride on the
Wind. Our
connections to all living
things are stong when we
honor the truth in each part
of Creation and respect the
rights of all life forms to
create life abundant.

********** *************

The American Indian is of the soil,

Wheather it be the reagion of forest,plains,pueblos,or mesas.

He fits into the landscape,for the hand that fashioned the continent also fashioned the man for his sourroundings.

He once grew as natural as the wild sunflowers:he belongs just as the buffalo belonged...

"Luther Standing Bear-1868-1939"Oglala Siox Chief"

---------------- ------

We are tought to believe that The Great Spirit sees and hears everything and that he never forgets:

and hereafter he will give every man a spirit-home according to his deserts...

This i believe,and all my people believe the same.

Joseph-1830-1904-Nez Peree' CHIEF

in silence;

Sometimes each prayed aloud

--

Sometimes an agged person prayed for all of us.

At other times one woul rise and speak to us of our duties to each other and to Usen.

Our serveses were short.

Geronimo-1829-1909-Chiricahua Apache CHIEF

The Great Spirit is in all things;

he in in the air we breath.The Great Spirit is our Father,

but the earth is our mother.She nurishes us;

that which we put into the ground she returns to us...

******

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