Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Buffalo

From 2.bp.blogspot.com at Google Images
I put a picture of a buffalo on my site because
 the buffalo was undoubtedly the Cheyenne Indians
 most important food sources. They used everything
on the buffalo.  The horns could become spoons. The
fur could become a blanket. And of course they would
eat the meat.






















Teepee


This is a picture of the teepee I made with my group.
It has a flap like the teepees the Plains Indians used
Above it is a picture of the inside of this same teepee.
Inside is a man. He is the chief of the Cheyenne Indians.
If you look on the back side of the inside you will see
a picture of a buffalo hunt with warriors on horses carrying spears.
I drew this picture because that is what your father would
do if he were a hunter for the Cheyenne Indians. You may
think the chief is wearing a cape. He is not. It is a feathered head-
dress.




Totem Pole


This is the totem pole my group and I made. Around its neck is an amulet.
The amulet has a picture of a hawk in front of a moon. It has that picture on
it because that is the name of our clan, The Moonhawks. It has a picture of a horse, a travois, a
buffalo, a river and a prairie at the bottom. It has a horse because the horses
made it easier to hunt the buffalo.  It has the buffalo because buffalo were essential
to the Western Great Plains Indians. It has a river because the buffalo and the horses
needed water to survive. It has the plains because that is where they lived. Last but
not least is the travois. A travois is two sticks tied together at the top. The Plains Indians
used it to carry their babies in good weather.


Tuesday, November 30, 2010

How The Turtle Got His Shell

Once, when the Heavenly Father was making the creatures of the Earth, he foolishly set down the creature he was making. Now this animal had only a skin and no shell. Heavenly Father had put the breath of life into the creature already, so as soon as it was put down, it ran away. It fell right into the middle of a race on Earth, and the creature just barely missed
 getting trampled. He scrambled into the sidelines and watched the rest of the race. He had not watched any more than four racers when he thought, "Without a shell, I could be the winner. Why, that buffalo is practically going in slow motion." So the next day he joined the races. At first the other animals thought he was joking. But when he lined up at the starting line, they saw it was no joke. He won easily time after time again.The animals got so fed up with him, they came up with a plan. When the turtle,(for that is what he called himself) came the next day, there was a sign that said,  YOU NEED  TO HAVE A SHELL TO RACE. That night he went up to the heavens and asked, "Father, will you give me a shell? I want one I can take on and off." Heavenly Father said, " Go back to Earth, Turtle, and when you wake up, your shell will be there." And, in the morning, as promised, there was his shell. But what an ugly shell it was! It was a sick looking green color, and so musty and dull, it looked like it had been sitting in an attic for twenty years. There was a note that said, "Sorry, it's the best I could do on a short notice." Turtle hated it, but unless he wants to miss the race, he will have to wear it. When Turtle got there he heard shouts of, "Nice outfit!", and "Good luck winning this one!" But when he took his shell off, the animals objected. He raised his hand for silence. "Your sign said that you needed to have a shell to race. It did not say you needed to wear a shell to race." And so the Turtle won that race, and the many after that. But then came the winter. It snowed so much that the races were called off. It was so cold that Turtle kept his shell on all the time. Over time Turtle's shell began to grow attached to his back. In the spring, he went to race and he could not take off his shell. All the animals began to laugh at him. And turtle became the slowest of all the animals. That is how turtle got his shell.

Friday, November 26, 2010

The Cheyenne Indians

 Feet, pounding the ground in a rhythmic beat. Voices singing a strange and haunting, yet beautiful chant. The fire, burning high  over the faces of the dancers, casting eerie shadows over the campground. Horses panting heavily from the long day of hunting buffalo. The sun going lower in the darkening sky. This paper will tell you about six things. The first one is religion. It will tell you a story behind one of the Cheyenne rituals. The second one is food. It will tell you the food they ate. The third one is culture. It will tell you about the ways of the Cheyenne. The fourth one is climate. It will tell you the weather the Cheyenne were used to. The fifth one is entertainment. It will tell you what the Cheyenne did for fun. The sixth one is climate. It will tell you the weather the Cheyenne were used to.
                                    
                                                                RELIGION
 The Cheyenne Native Americans had rituals. One ritual was the four arrows ceremony. The story behind the ceremony goes like this: Once, long ago, there was a tribe. But this was a horrible tribe to belong to. People fought, and stole, and hoarded.  In that tribe one day a boy fought with the chief over a buffalo skin, and was exiled. A few months later, he was sleeping by a stream, and he heard a voice say, "Here are four arrows. Two are for success in hunting, and the other two are for success in war." So the boy prayed to the arrows, and good came to his people. The Cheyenne continued to pray to the arrows, and kept them in a special tent with an arrow keeper. The ceremony empowers men of the tribe. It was done during the summer solstice. No women were allowed.

                                                                    FOOD
The Cheyenne had a varied diet. First, the meat they ate. They hunted buffalo, which was their main food source. Furthermore, they stalked antelope. Additionally, they pursued deer, elk,and wild turkeys. A normal sized buffalo could feed an adult for up to 200 days. Buffalo also produced about 140 pounds of jerky. The Cheyenne dried most of their meat. That way, it didn't spoil. Last but not least, they fished for fish. The Cheyenne gathered rice from swampy areas. They grew corn,and gathered elderberries and chokeberries.
                                             
                                                                   CULTURE
The Cheyenne Native Americans were not always nomadic buffalo hunters. Around the 1800s, they quit farming and left their permanent villages. They became nomadic hunters who followed the buffalo. Soon they went South to trade for horses with the southern tribes. Having horses increased their hunting skills. The horses were also handy to ride if you were a nomad. The Cheyenne lived, worked, and hunted as a group. The Cheyenne valued their children. The more children the tribe had, the more chance of surviving the tribe had. They didn't hit their children.
                                                             
                                                                          CLIMATE
The Cheyenne Indians had varied weather as well as varied food. It was very dry and hot. In the summer it could get hotter than one hundred degrees fahrenheit. In the winter it could go lower than forty degrees fahrenheit. They also got heavy snows in the winter time. That's a lot colder than any Florida winter.
                                          
                                                        INTERESTING FACTS
The Cheyenne were called the "Horse People". They got their real name, Cheyenne from their neighbors, the Sioux. Roughly translated, it means "speakers of an unintelligible language". They were closely allied with the Arapaho, and loosely allied with the Sioux. Their council was called the council of 44. As you may have guessed, it had 44 members.
                                                                
                                                       ENTERTAINMENT
Because I could not find specific information on what the Cheyenne did for entertainment, so this is what tribes in their region, maybe them to, did for entertainment.
The boys on the Plains would play a game with a bow and arrow. They would shoot the arrow through a hoop. This would help them improve their aim. The girls would practice making doll-sized teepees. This would help them practice for when they were women. Then they would have to set up the full sized ones.

The sound of feet, dying away. Voices, getting softer and softer. The last glowing embers of the fire,sizzling away. Horses, laying down quietly on the ground. The sun, gone from the sky, and the first few stars appearing. This paper told you about six things. The Native Americans and I have done our jobs. Go now knowing more than you did before.
                                                                   SOURCES
1. The Encyclopedia of North American Indians.
    Published in 1997 by
    Marshall Cavendish Corporation
    Tarrytown N.Y USA
    Volume 3 page 293 through 295

 2. Native Americans
     Published in 2000 by
     Grolier Education
     Sherman Turnpike
     Danbury Connecticut USA
     Brown Partworks Ltd

 3. The Cheyennes
     Published in 1996 by
     Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
      and Ronald Himler
     Printed in the USA

4. The Cheyenne Hunter-Gatherers of the North Plains
    Published in 2004 by
    Capstone Press
    Mankato Minnesota USA