Life in a Lenape Longhouse Life in a Lenape Longhouse
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Apls.1005.1492_01-32 7/31/05 11:23 AM Page 14 LifeLife inin aa LenapeLenape LonghouseLonghouse by Kathy illustrated by Trippe-McRee Dave Edwards Waking early, the Lenape girl snuggled deeper under her deerskin cover. She heard familiar sounds . her mother’s dipping-shell scraping the clay pot as she scooped porridge; her father and brothers discussing their fishing plans; her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins around the longhouse preparing for the day. All the families in this longhouse were her mother’s relatives. Her grandmother shared the longhouse with her sisters and daughters and their families. All the men came from other longhouses; they moved into this longhouse when they married into the family. Lenape women and men divided all responsibilities. The eldest grandmother ruled her longhouse, and she distributed food among the families. Grandmothers The Lenape from all the longhouses gathered together with the Indians lived men to make important decisions about hunting and in the eastern woods of what is now Delaware, trading. Even children had work to do. The time of New Jersey, and plentiful food (spring, summer, and fall) kept everyone Pennsylvania. busy. Around age 6, girls began helping their mothers, and boys began helping their fathers. 14 Apls.1005.1492_01-32 7/31/05 11:23 AM Page 15 Men and boys fished in lakes and streams. They rowed canoes out to underwater fish traps, called weirs, and collected their catch in large nets. The What’s in a Name? fathers and uncles showed the boys how to tie by Karen Coody Cooper sticks together to make the weirs. The grandfathers The Lenape are a Native demonstrated tying fibers American nation. (Each American Indians are the to make nets. Then the Native person is part of a Native people of this tribe, or nation.) A person’s continent. boys could splash in nationality—and name for Columbus called the the cool water to escape that nationality—can be people whom he met in the heat. complicated to understand. America “Indios.” Europeans In the summer, the Think about the names began to call all Native boys also practiced “American Indian,” “Native people American Indians. hunting ducks, squirrels, American,” and “Native.” Native people prefer to be and raccoons with bows Where a person is born is called by their tribal names. his or her native place. I am Cherokee. Others are and arrows. They learned I am a native of Oklahoma, Lenape, Navajo, Lakota, to make arrowheads for example. I am also a Seminole, Crow, Kiowa, from stones and bone Native American, since my Tlingit, Pequot, or any of pieces. Late fall and Cherokee ancestors were the more than 500 other early winter were deer- here long before Europeans Native nations in the hunting time. came to this continent. United States. 15 Apls.1005.1492_01-32 7/31/05 11:23 AM Page 16 Women and girls gathered plants, berries, and nuts in the forest. They also tended the village garden of corn, beans, and squash. Mothers carried their babies in slings on their backs. Toddlers stayed near the longhouse with their grandparents. Girls learned how to cook from their mothers and aunts. They were taught how to cut game and fish with sharpened bones and hang it on racks to dry. In autumn, they dried their garden produce. Dried food kept well through the lean winter months. Grandmothers showed the girls how to weave rushes into baskets and sleeping mats. The girls watched closely as their mothers used their hands to shape clay into fat round pots. They also learned how to preserve animal skins and sew the skins into clothing. By helping adults, children learned the skills they would need when they grew up. But they didn’t work all the time. Lenape children played with toys made of wood, bones, clay, and other materials. Grandparents gave toddlers tiny pots for pretend cooking. Girls took 16 Apls.1005.1492_01-32 7/31/05 11:23 AM Page 17 In this story, thunderbirds are “the spirit of thunder, lightning, or rain” in the form of large birds. care of cornhusk doll “babies.” Lenape children had few toys, but the longhouse held many playmates. Teenagers played ball games, including a game similar to football. The longhouse became a cozy refuge in winter, as family members gathered around the central fires used for cooking and heating. Children listened to their grandparents’ tales. In one story, the children learned that young thunderbirds made the short “cracks” of thunder and old thunderbirds made the long, low rumbles of summer storms. Evening arrived. Rain pattered on the roof as the girl’s tired eyes tried to close. Her day had been busy; she had helped her aunts in the garden, picked berries with her mother, and practiced weaving with her grandmother. She and her cousins had chased each other around the play area near the village. As she lay on her sleeping mat, her mother tucked the deerskin blanket around her. The girl hugged her cornhusk doll and drifted off to sleep as young and old thunderbirds took turns making thunder. 17 Apls.1005.1492_01-32 7/31/05 10:50 AM Page 2 e Wor th ld? n i e r by Ann Jordan illustrated by Katrina Damkoehler e h 5 1 W NORTHWEST COAST 6 PLAINS 1 Chinook wood plank 2 house: redwood or cedar planks, supported by beams 2 Anasazi cliff dwelling: stone or adobe (clay) brick 4 3 Navajo hogan: logs covered 7 with earth SOUTHWEST 4 Zuni pueblo: adobe brick 3 5 Mandan earth lodge: pole structure covered with brush and dirt 8 6 Teton Sioux tipi: peeled 10 Cherokee house: poles, poles covered with buffalo twigs, branches, cornstalks, hides earth/mud 7 Comanche tipi: pine, 11 Iroquois longhouse: peeled, cedar, or spruce poles bent poles covered with bark covered with buffalo hides 12 Lenape wigwam: bent 8 Caddo earth lodge: log saplings (young trees) covered frames covered with with bark or reed mats branches and sod 13 Seminole chickee: sapling 9 Potawatomi wigwam: poles covered with palmetto pole structure covered with fronds; open sided grass mats and bark 14 Taino bohio: woven straw, palm-thatched roofs 2 Apls.1005.1492_01-32 7/31/05 10:50 AM Page 3 Hundreds of Native American tribes, or nations, lived across North America before 1492. On this map, you can see where 14 Native nations lived and what types of shelters they built. Each group depended on the natural resources around them for all their needs. They built their homes from the materials Naming America available to them. by Karen Coody Cooper North America did not always have the name “America.” Each group of American Indian people had their own name for the land where they lived. 11 Some called the continent “Turtle Island,” in their EASTERN own languages. And most American Indians called 9 WOODLANDS 12 themselves “The People.” Soon after Europeans realized that our continent existed, a mapmaker named it “America,” in honor of the Italian explorer Amerigo 10 Vespucci. 13 14 3.