Eastern Woodland Indians Tribes

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Eastern Woodland Indians Tribes

• Created and Presented
• By Pam Pirtle
• 3rd Grade Spring Creek Elementary

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Tribes

• The group of Native American
  known as the Woodland Indians is made up of
  several tribes. These are some of the major
  tribes.

Delaware Wampanoag Huron Narraganset Powhatan
Iroquois Mohawk Oneida Onondaga Cayuga
Seneca Tuscarora
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Location

• These tribes lived east of the Plains in the
  forest areas along the eastern part of the United
  States. They lived there long before the
  Europeans came to this continent. The people of
  these tribes found everything they needed to live
  in the forest.

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Map of the area the Eastern Woodland Indians
lived.
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Clothing

• Their clothing was made mostly from hides of
  animals. In the winter, the men wore shirts,
  leggings, and moccasins made of buckskin.
  Buckskin is clothing made from the skins of
  animals, mainly deer. The women wore skirts they
  had woven from the wild grasses, covered with
  furs, with leggings underneath..

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Clothing

• In the summer, the men wore a breechcloth, a
  short piece of buckskin that hung from the front
  to the back of the Indian. The women wore their
  grass dresses, and the children wore nothing at
  all.

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This is a picture of the traditional dress of men
in many of the Eastern Woodland tribes.
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• Dyed quills decorated moccasins in red, blue
  and violet. These are Seneca quilled moccasins

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Wampum

• Wampum belts and necklaces were made from
  wampum beads. These beads were actually white and
  purple shells. Wampum was used as money between
  white man and Indians. Wampum belts were used as
  a form of communication between Indian tribes.
  Wampum belts would be made into pictures showing
  the reason it was made. All Indian messengers
  carried wampum belts when going to other tribes

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These are some of the types of shells used in the
wampum belts created from around 200 AD to
colonial times.
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This is a sample of a wampum belt.
The Great Chain, or Covenant Belt, is generally
thought to be a belt presented by the U.S.
government to the Iroquois in 1794 at the
Pickering Treaty at Canandaigua, N.Y. Adapted
from The Native Americans. Edited by B. I.
Ballantine. 1993
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• The human figures, each linked by a wampum
  belt, form a chain of friendship, representing
  the alliance between the thirteen states and the
  Iroquoian confederacy.
• Adapted from The Native Americans
• . Edited by B. I. Ballantine. 1993

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The Huron Wampum Belt commemorates the 1683
agreement between the Herons and Jesuit
missionaries for the construction of the first
wooden church on Huron Lands. Adapted from The
Native Americans. Edited by B. I. Ballantine.
1993.
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How to make dyes

• The Eastern Woodland Indians used many plants
  to create dyes to dye fibers, quills, and other
  items used to decorate their clothing and
  household goods.
• Lets look at some of the plants used.

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• YELLOW Sunflower, Gold thread, Cone flower
  petals with decayed oak bark or cattail root,
  Black willow roots, Fox moss , Yellow or curled
  dock root, Cottonwood, Lichen , Oregon Grape,
  Osage orange wood RED Choke cherry or wild
  plum, Tamarack bark, Spruce cones, Sumac berries,
  Alder, Hemlock inner bark, Poke berry, Bloodroot,
  Sassafras, Red Bedstraw, Buffalo-berry, Squaw
  current, Red Osier Dogwood, Red cedar.

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• BLACK Wild grape Maples, Burr oak,
  Elderberries, Hazel nut bark combined with
  powdered brown stone BROWN Hickory or Walnuts
  gathered green and turned black, Rushes PURPLE
  Blueberries, Blackberries, Elderberries,
  Northern dog whelk, White maple. BLUE Larkspur,
  Beech, Wire Birch, Indigo. GREEN Prince's Pine,
  Moosewood, Evergreen, Copper mixed with ammonia
  (urine).

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Food

• Many of the Eastern Woodland tribes hunted
  small game such as deer, rabbit, and bear. Since
  their villages were usually near the ocean,
  streams, or lakes, they also fished using spears
  and nets. Berries, nuts, and wild plants were
  important forms of food. Many of these tribes
  were considered to be excellent farmers. They had
  large farms which grew corn, beans, and squash.

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Food

• Corn, beans, and squash were the most
  important crops planted. They were know as The
  Three Sisters as they were also grown together.

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Shelter
The Iroquois Indians lived in wigwams and
longhouses.
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• Wigwams were made by bending young trees to
  form the round shape of the home. Over this shape
  pieces of tree bark were overlapped to protect
  the Indians from bad weather.

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• Over the bark a layer of thatch, or
  dried grass, was added. A small hole in the top
  allowed smoke from the fires to escape. Beds were
  matting covered with animal skin.

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• Longhouses were long rectangular homes.
  Longhouses were made by building a frame from
  saplings, or young trees.

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They were then covered with bark sewn together.
There was a long hallway with rooms on both
sides.
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The Iroquois village consisted of two or more
longhouses. In the early years the longhouses
were built near streams.
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• Later they were built on hilltops for
  protection from invading tribes. Around the
  village great wooden palisades with watch towers
  were built. The village was moved every 10 to 15
  years because crops no longer grew well.

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• Sleeping platforms, covered with deerskin,
  lined each wall. There were also shelves for
  storing baskets, pots, and pelts. Pelts are the
  skins of animals with the fur attached.

Several families would live in the long house,
but the families were related to each other.
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• The longhouse was large enough to hold a family
  of 30 to 60 people. It could be 25 to 150 feet
  long. Each family had a space about six by nine
  feet for a personal area. The family space was
  separated from the rest on the longhouse by
  leather curtains. In the personal space a seat
  was built against the wall.

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A storage pit is a hole that was dug inside the
longhouse and used to store food. When a pit was
used for storing food, it is thought that it was
lined with bark and grass and covered with bark
mats for lids

This is a casting of a storage pit found in an
old longhouse site.
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• Clothes and tools were stored under the seat.
  The seat was also used as a bed. The bed was
  covered with corn husk mats and then skins and
  furs.

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Tools

• Snowshoes made winter hunting easier for the
  Iroquois. They traveled up to 50 miles a day
  wearing the snowshoes in deep snow. The Iroquois
  also wore snowshoes in ritual dances.

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Tools

• An ax was created from stones to help with
  carving, splitting, or chipping wood and stone
  into the needed items.

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Tools

• The bannerstone was used as a weight to
  produce thrust when throwing a spear. It is
  believed to have been a prized possession of the
  chief of the tribe.

The perfect hole which was drilled with a hollow
reed, sand, and water may have taken up to 3,000
hours to accomplish
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Tools

• This soapstone net sinker, with a complete
  groove, was used as a weight for either fish nets
  or a hand line.

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Tools
Arrow points and spear points were carved from
flint stone and attached to the shaft for arrows
or spears as needed by the men using them.
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• The drill points illustrated are made of
  flint, jasper and quartzite and were used for
  drilling a hole in other materials. They were
  fastened on a wooden handle for leverage.

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Tools

• The antler was used for flaking secondary chips
  and notching the points when making arrowheads
  and spearheads

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Tools

• This is a rough stone with an abrasive
  quality need for the smoothing and straightening
  the shaft for an arrow or spear.

Shaft Smoother
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The pestle is the pounding implement for grinding
grain or herbs. The soapstone mortar is the
container for the material being ground.

• Usually a wooden pestle was used with a stone
  mortar or vice versa to ovoid ground-up sediment
  being mixed with the food.

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Tools

• The bone awl was the Indian woman's needle
  for sewing clothing and pulling strands apart
  when weaving

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The gorget was sometimes used as an ornament, to
fasten back the hair, as fasteners or buttons on
the loose shoulder robes worn during the winter,
or as a guard to protect the wrist from the back
lash of the bow string.
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Tools
This blade made of brown flint with a sharp edge
was used for cutting. Found at Three Bridges near
Canton.
The scraper is completely flat on one side with
sharp cutting edges for scraping fat from the
hides of animals or for scaling fish.
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Tools
Elm Bark Tray (left) George Key, Canada, Wolf
clan, Seneca, pre-1910 Elm Bark Tray (right)
Seneca, pre-1910

• In the spring and early summer, when the sap
  was up, bark was peeled from elm trees and bent
  to make trays and bowls. These items served every
  conceivable culinary purpose.

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Tools

• They held cooking ingredients and prepared
  foods, and made good mixing bowls and dishpans.
  On occasion, Iroquois women even added hot stones
  to bring the liquid in larger bowls to a boil, or
  they carefully placed the vessels over the fire
  to heat water.

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• These clay beads were found at Matts Landing
  near Port Elizabeth on the Maurice River

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• The copper beads were found near Beasleys
  Point during the excavation for a housing
  development. Deposits of copper have been found
  in northern New Jersey.

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• This clay pipe was found intact on the Riggins
  Farm in New Jersey.

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• This restored clay pipe was found on the
  Riggins Farm. The Indians grew tobacco and
  introduced it to the first settlers.

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Pots were made using clay coils, etched with
sticks and other things, and fired in coals.
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• Broken pots could be mended. Broken sides
  were drilled, the pieces bound together with
  sinew and glued with pine pitch. Such mended
  vessels were then used for the storage of dried
  foods.

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Tools

• The men created dugout canoes from tree logs.
  They used carving and wood burning to create the
  canoes.

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Special Groups in the Tribe

• The False Face Society was a group of medicine
  men who wore frightening masks made of wood. They
  were thought to posses special powers when they
  put on their masks.

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• An injured or ill
• Iroquois Indian would
• sometimes ask the False
• Face Society to drive away
• the spirit of the illness or
• injury. The False Face Society wore masks
  carved from wood. After a new member joined the
  False Face Society he had to make his own mask.

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• To make the mask the Iroquois walked through
  the woods until he found a tree whose spirit
  talked to him. After talking to the tree, the
  Indian built a fire. He sprinkled tobacco, then
  stripped bark from the tree.

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• Next the Indian outlined a face and cut out
  the section to the tree he had outlined. Then the
  Iroquois went into a secluded shelter to carve
  the mask. The mask was polished then decorated
  with hair, feathers, etc.

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• Sometimes the Indians wore corn husks masks
  or painted their faces to frighten away the evil
  spirits.

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Games
The Iroquois Indians played the Sacred Bowl Game
during the last day of the "Ceremonial of
Midwinter" which marked the end of the year.
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• The wooden bowl was decorated with four clan
  symbols - the bear, wolf, turtle, and deer. To
  play the game a player placed the six nuts which
  were colored on one side inside the bowl and hit
  the bowl against the ground. If five of the six
  pits turned up the same color, the player scored
  and took another turn. The first player to reach
  10 points wins the game.

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• This ends the presentation on the Woodland
  Indians. Use the information you learned to help
  write your report and slide show.

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Bibliography

• http//www.co.cumberland.nj.us/facts/history/unala
  chtigo/unalachtigo.html , April 25,2004
• http//www.reacheverychild.com/feature/native.htm
  l , April 26,2004
• http//www.mce.k12tn.net/indians/reports1/iroquois
  2.htmtools , April 26, 2004
• http//www.nativetech.org/scenes/ April 26, 2004
• http//www.picadome.fcps.net/lab/currl/nativeam/pr
  imary.htm April 26, 2004
• http//www.germantown.k12.il.us/html/woodland2.htm
  l April 26, 2004
• http//www.nativetech.org/wampum/wamphist.htm
  April 26, 2004
• http//jamaica.u.arizona.edu/ic/kmartin/School/iro
  qcloth.htm April 26, 2004