summer nature program
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INDIGENOUS STUDIES
Learning about the 'old ways' and sacredness of all life is an important part of Another Way Schools Learning Program.
Every morning the students gather in the Tipi for Circle ad come to know about the ways of the Lakota Sioux and hear stories from the Elders. Last week students painted this buffalo skull using traditional patterns and natural pigments. This week the students helped Tim Jarrell tan a buffalo hide (using brains) and learned how much work that is to do! |
The TIpi
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The past couple weeks, it has astonished me how much information our students were able to absorb in such a short amount of time! The overall point I try to get to in my classroom...well, tipi... is to introduce the kids to not only the Indigionous/Lakota way of life, but more importantly the Lakota way of thinking. The Wo Lakota, or Lakota way of life is an oral tradition, and thus passed down in the lakota language through stories/oral teachings. It has been incredible having the honor of passing down age old stories/teachings covering multiple topics thus far.
Our first day we talked about teachings around the Can Gleska (medicine wheel). Through this the kids were able to learn many basic lakota words surrounding directions (north, south, east, west, sky, earth, and to the center), the colors associated with those directions (red, white, yellow, black, blue, green, and purple), and animals (black bear, thunder beings, buffalo, elk, deer, coyote, eagle, and mole). That day we were able to discuss the Lakota creation story, telling how we believe the earth, and all of creation came to be. We also discussed how that story tied into others such as that of Pte San Win (The White Buffalo Calf Woman), and how our way of prayer was brought to the Lakota people. This also transitioned well into the story of grandma mole, and how we as a society have forgotten the last direction (to the center), and what that direction means to us.
The following day we had the opportunity to discuss music in native culture. We talked about different kinds of drums used in ceremony and powwows, the use of the gourd rattle in the Native American Church, and the origin of the flute to the Lakota people. I told the story of how the woodpecker made and gifted the flute to the Lakota people, as well as the story of how the red wolf gifted the Kiowa people the Gourd Dance, and the songs that go with that ceremony/war society.
After that we got into artwork, particularly painting, among plains native tribes. Our students learned how pigment/earth paint is created, what colors we had, and then applied those teachings in making paint, and helping me paint a buffalo skull.
Our first day we talked about teachings around the Can Gleska (medicine wheel). Through this the kids were able to learn many basic lakota words surrounding directions (north, south, east, west, sky, earth, and to the center), the colors associated with those directions (red, white, yellow, black, blue, green, and purple), and animals (black bear, thunder beings, buffalo, elk, deer, coyote, eagle, and mole). That day we were able to discuss the Lakota creation story, telling how we believe the earth, and all of creation came to be. We also discussed how that story tied into others such as that of Pte San Win (The White Buffalo Calf Woman), and how our way of prayer was brought to the Lakota people. This also transitioned well into the story of grandma mole, and how we as a society have forgotten the last direction (to the center), and what that direction means to us.
The following day we had the opportunity to discuss music in native culture. We talked about different kinds of drums used in ceremony and powwows, the use of the gourd rattle in the Native American Church, and the origin of the flute to the Lakota people. I told the story of how the woodpecker made and gifted the flute to the Lakota people, as well as the story of how the red wolf gifted the Kiowa people the Gourd Dance, and the songs that go with that ceremony/war society.
After that we got into artwork, particularly painting, among plains native tribes. Our students learned how pigment/earth paint is created, what colors we had, and then applied those teachings in making paint, and helping me paint a buffalo skull.
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Finally this week, together the students and I have had the amazing opportunity to begin the process of brain tanning a massive bull buffalo hide. We discussed the importance of Tatanka (the buffalo) to Lakota society. From tipis, to clothing, tools, to food, the buffalo were everything to the Lakota people. With this teaching we talked about the butchering and use of every part of the buffalo. From the organ meats, the hide, and skull, to the bones, bladder, and tail, every part was used. We had the hide soaking for a couple days to make it pliable and stretched it out on a large wooden frame to dry. After stretching, the students and I washed/shampooed the fur side to create a soft result that no longer smells like a dirty buffalo! We ended the week by scraping the remaining membrane off to get down to the bare skin on the flesh side of the hide. We then thinned the hide to make the thickness of the hide uniform in its entirety.
Next week we will continue by cooking the brain, and mashing it in water creating a slurry that will chemically alter the rawhide, thus helping the rawhide become leather (tanning it). After the brain absorbs into the rawhide, you must vigorously work the hide to make it soft and supple. After that we will smoke the hide, which makes it water resistant, allowing it to remain supple if it gets wet and dries out. The last step is to repeat the past three steps of braining, softening, and smoking the hide. The anticipation of the final result is awesome, and the students are both interested and actively engaging in a process that would have been a major part of their lives not so many decades ago.
Through these stories, teachings, and hands-on skills, the students have been opened up to a way of thinking and doing things that are considered abstract and unconventional by today’s standards. It is exciting and humbling to see their minds continue to expand to create and understand things that bend what they know as reality, what is possible!
Next week we will continue by cooking the brain, and mashing it in water creating a slurry that will chemically alter the rawhide, thus helping the rawhide become leather (tanning it). After the brain absorbs into the rawhide, you must vigorously work the hide to make it soft and supple. After that we will smoke the hide, which makes it water resistant, allowing it to remain supple if it gets wet and dries out. The last step is to repeat the past three steps of braining, softening, and smoking the hide. The anticipation of the final result is awesome, and the students are both interested and actively engaging in a process that would have been a major part of their lives not so many decades ago.
Through these stories, teachings, and hands-on skills, the students have been opened up to a way of thinking and doing things that are considered abstract and unconventional by today’s standards. It is exciting and humbling to see their minds continue to expand to create and understand things that bend what they know as reality, what is possible!
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fire starting
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