Native Americans
Powhatans
Sioux
Pueblo
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The Powhatan Indians originally lived in Virginia,
the Jamestown Colony, but due to British attacks many years ago,
many Powhatan Indians have moved north and now settle in parts of
New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The Powhatan Indians are also known
as one of the Eastern Woodlands tribes.
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| The Sioux Indians are a group of tribes who speak a similar language
and lived in the Plains region of Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Montana,
North Dakota and South Dakota.
The Sioux Indians were also known as a tribe of the Plains
Indians. |
| The Pueblo Indians were the Indians of the southwest. For the most
part, they lived in four states:
1. Arizona Sometimes they could be found in the western part of Texas. |
| The Powhatan Indians lived in longhouses. A longhouse is very similar to an apartment building. The longhouse is made of bark and wood from elm trees. Each longhouse could change in size but usually was about 25 feet by 80 feet. Each longhouse was separated into many sections so more than one family could live in one longhouse; much like an apartment building. Each section had a cooking fire and raised platform covered with reed mats or furs for sleeping or sitting. |
| Sioux Tepee At one time, the Sioux Indians lived in tentlike homes called tepees. The tepee was the perfect home for the Sioux Indians because they moved frequently to follow the buffalo herds. The tepee was made from buffalo hides. Tepees were portable, easily moved, and could be put up in only three minutes. The women would put the tepees up while the men were out hunting. First they would tie long poles together. Next, they would spread the bottoms of the poles to make a circle. Finally, they covered the poles with buffalo hides. When the tribe traveled, the long poles of the tepee were dragged behind the horse and used to carry the Indians things. This was called a travois. |
| The Pueblo Indians lived in cliff dwellings known as adobe buildings. The buildings were made from clay bricks that were baked in the sun. These bricks are called adobe. Since the climate of the southwest was so dry, these bricks lasted for many years. The adobe bricks were laid like regular bricks. People would use ladders to get into their homes. In times of danger, they pulled up the ladders and no enemy could get inside. |
| Powhatans usually wore a beaded headband with a feather in it. They
painted their faces and bodies with different colors and designs for
different occasions, and both men and women often wore tattooes. Powhatan
women wore knee-length skirts and the men wore breechcloths with leather
pant legs tied on if the weather was cool. Traditionally the Powhatans
did not wear shirts, although they did wear cloaks made of turkey
feathers or furs in the winter. Both genders wore earrings and moccasins
on their feet. Today, some Powhatan people still have traditional
headbands or moccasins, but they wear clothes from today like jeans
instead of breechcloths and they only wear feathers in their hair
on special occasions. |
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| Sioux men and boys wore deerskin shirts and leggings. In warm weather when they hunted, they wore only a strip of leather, called a breechcloth, and a pair of moccasins. In the winter they would wear a buffalo robe to keep them warm as well as snow shoes. The Sioux women and girls wore dresses and moccasins. The buffalo hides were tanned and painted. They also decorated their clothing with bead work. |
| The Pueblo clothing was made mainly from cotton fibers. Some robes
were made for the cold weather by intertwining yucca fibers wrapped
with strips of rabbit fur or turkey feathers. Animal hides were used
for blankets, breechcloths and aprons. Weaving on large looms was
done mostly by men. They wove blankets, shirts, robes, aprons, kilts,
breechcloths and belts from vegetable fibers, animal and human hair,
and cotton they got from trading.
Footwear included sandals, moccasins, and snowshoes. Sandals, usually made of woven yucca fibers, came in many styles. Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, arm bands, hair combs and pins,
were made from wood, bone, shell and stones including turquoise. |
| The Powhatan Indians were farmers and hunters. The women did the farming and harvesting and the men did the hunting and fishing. They ate corn, squash, berries, nuts, fish, turkeys, deer, soups, stews, and cornbread. |
| Buffalo was the main food for the Sioux Indians. Keeping it fresh was very hard. It was dried and could then be stored for a long time. Some of the dried meat was pounded into powder and mixed with hot, melted buffalo fat and berries to form pemmican. Women collected berries in the summer. Some berries were eaten fresh but many were dried and stored so they could be used as dyes, food, and jewelry. The Sioux men also hunted and ate deer, moose, elk, wolves, coyotes, lynx, rabbits, gophers, prairie chickens, and many other birds and small animals were also trapped. Vegetables were a very important part of the Sioux Indians' diet. The Sioux Indians also made parfleches. A parfleche was a buffalo-hide pouch used to store or carry food. They would store jerky and pemmican which was a dried mixture of fat and meat. The parfleches were considered to be very valuable. |
| Corn was dried and stored on the cob. Strips of dried squash hung
in the storage rooms. Wild plant foods were also stored and prepared
for cooking. Piñon nuts, sunflower and other seeds had to be
cracked, hulled, winnowed and parched before they could be cooked
and eaten.
Women spent hours each day grinding corn into flour. Beans were soaked and cooked in large jars. These jars were not placed directly over fires; instead, hot rocks were dropped into the jars for boiling. Corn was also put in jars which lay on their sides near the fire. There weren't many animals for them to hunt. But when they were able to kill a large animal, they were butchered at the kill site. Back at home the pieces were prepared for cooking, bones were cracked to get the marrow, and hides were cured for other uses. |
| The Powhatan Indians are known for their beadwork and basketry. The Powhatans crafted wampum out of white and purple seashells or shell beads. Wampum beads were strung together in many different patterns. The designs usually told stories about important events or a family. Wampum was used like money. The Powhatans would trade the white man wampum for goods. Wampum belts would be made into pictures showing the reason it was made. All Indian messengers carried wampum belts when going to other tribes because they were used as a form of communication between Indian tribes. The baskets that the Powhatan Indians would weave, were made from the bark of trees. They coated the baskets with pine pitch to make them waterproof. They were very light in weight. The Powhatans used these baskets for gathering berries, nuts, water, corn, beans, and squash. |
| The Sioux Indians created pictograph stories on the hide of large animals. These were also known as calendars called Winter Counts. The Sioux Indians would count the years by the passing winters. They would record historical events that happened each year by painting symbolic pictures of the event. The first picture was placed in the center of the hide. Each year the new picture was added and arranged in a spiral shape around the center picture. |
| Music was a very important part of life for the Sioux Indians. Drums, flutes, and voices, were used to make music for many occasions. There were lullabies, love songs, and songs for ceremonies, games, powwows, and funerals. Music was also a way for them to communicate. Certain tunes played on the flute could give a message to someone listening. |
| The Pueblo Indians were known for their beautiful clay pots. The pots had many designs on them that were used to tell stories about their families or villages. The designs were usually black on white or black on red. The shapes of the pottery included jars, bowls, pitchers, ladles, canteens, figurines and miniatures. |
| The Powhatan Indians made dugout canoes by hollowing out large trees.
When they were on dry land, the Powhatans usually walked. They did
not ride horses because there were no horses in North America until
much later. When the horses were available, they were not interested
in them because the Powhatans primarily lived in the forest and the
horses lived out on the plains. Today, Powhatan people use cars. |
| The Sioux Indians used two methods of transportation. They walked
and rode horses. Before the horses came to the plains the Sioux Indians
walked everywhere and carried all of their things themselves. When
the horses were brought to the Plains it made life much easier. The
horses carried them as well as all of their things. Horses also made
hunting buffalo easier, safer, and more productive - they could kill
more at a time. If a family owned many ponies, they were thought of
as very rich. |
| The Pueblo Indians didn't use horses or canoes for transportation.
To get from place to place, the Pueblo Indians traveled on foot. So
their only way of transportation was by walking. |
| In war, men used tomahawks or heavy wooden war clubs, and also carried shields. |
| One way for the Siuox Indians to hunt buffalo was to ride into the herd on horseback and use bows and arrows to kill the buffalo. Another way was for a large group of Indians on horseback to chase the buffalo off a cliff. Another way some Sioux Indians hunted for buffalo, was to sneak up on the herd wearing wolf skins and then killing them with bows and arrows. |
| The Pueblo Indians were not known for fighting. They traveled by foot and were farmers. Usually if they new danger was coming, they would run back to their adobe homes and pull the ladders in to prevent enemies from entering their home. So, the Pueblo Indians were not known for their weapon use. |
| Hunters usually used bow and arrows as well as traps. Fishermen
used nets and pronged spears to catch fish from their canoes. |
| The horns of the buffalo were used as spoons, cups, and toys. The bones were used as tools and weapons. The tail was used as a whip. The stomach and intestines were cleaned and then used to carry water. |
| The Pueblo Indians used many farming tools. For example, hoes and digging sticks, clay pots for storage or to carry things, stones and fire to create their clay pots, and large looms used for weaving. |
Sources:
http://www.unitedstreaming.com
http://www.enchantedlearning.com