Native Americans Day 22: Northeast Woodland: Wampanoag

Northeast Woodland: Wampanoag

1. Review: We learned about the Shawnee tribe in the Northeast Woodland region last time. Today we will learn about another tribe in the Northeast Woodland, the Wampanoag tribe. Remind students where the Northeast Woodland region is on the regional map.

2. Map Skills: Compare the regional map to the globe or map today and see what countries or states are in the Northeast Woodland region.

3. Discuss: Fill out the Tribes Chart after reading each section. Have the child listen closely to choose what word to put on the chart. Bold type words are good suggestions.

• Habitat: Northeast Woodland The Wampanoag Indians were original natives of Massachuetts and Rhode Island. Wampanoag people who befriended the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock and brought them corn and turkey for the famous first Thanksgiving.
• Homes: A wetu is a domed hut, used by some north-eastern Native American tribes such as the Wampanoag. They provided temporary shelter for families wandering the wooded coast for hunting and fishing. They were made out of sticks of red cedar and grass.
• Dress: Wampanoag women wore knee-length skirts. Wampanoag men wore breechcloth and leggins. Tthey would dress in deerskin robes during cool weather. The Wampanoags also wore moccasins on their feet. Usually they wore a beaded headband with a feather or two in it. A Wampanoag chief might wear a headdress made of feathers pointing straight up from a headbank. Wampanoag women had long hair, but a man would often wore his hair in the mohawk style or shave his head completely except for a scalplock (one long lock of hair on top of his head.) Wampanoag warriors also painted their faces, and sometimes decorated their bodies with tribal tatoos.
• Food: Everyone in a Wampanoag family cooperated to gather food for the tribe. Women farmed corn, squash and beans. Men hunted for deer, turkeys, and small game and went fishing in their canoes. Wampanoag children collected other food like berries, nuts and herbs.

4. Read: Wampanoag by Barbara A. Gray-Kanaiiosh

5. Comprehension questions:

• What region did the Wampanoag live in? Northeast Woodland
• What kind of homes did the Wampanoag build? Wetu
• What kind of clothes did the Wampanoag wear? Skirts, moccasins, breechcloth, leggins, headband, painted and mohawk
• How did the Wampanoag get their food? Farmed, fished, and gathered

Birchbark Canoe

Discuss:

The Woodland tribes designed a canoe from birchbark. They designed a frame of wood or animal bones and covered it with birchbark with grew plentifully. The bark from a single large tree could cover a whole canoe. This created a much lighter weight boat.

Materials:

• Brown construction paper or brown paper from a grocery bag
• Crayons, tempera paint, or markers
• Scissors
• Yarn
• Markers
• A hole punch

Directions:

1. Fold the piece of construction paper in half the long way.

2. About a half-inch from the fold line, make another fold. Do this on both sides of the original fold. The paper should now look a bit like a capital "W." The folds will be the bottom of the canoe. 

3. Draw a canoe shape on the paper (make sure the folds are on the bottom of the canoe).

4. Cut out the canoe shape and punch a few holes on each end.

5. Using yarn, weave through the holes.

6. Draw decorations on the side.

7. Push the folded floor flat so that the canoe sits upright.

 

Indian Corn

Materials:

• 1 cob of dried Indian Corn (We used the corn that we planted at the beginning of this unit study)
• Glue
• Copy of Corn on the Cob Pattern on cardstock (I found one in a Oct/Nov 2012 The Mailbox Yearbook)
• Crepe paper
• Crayons

Directions:

1. The first thing you have to do is remove the kernels from the cob.
   
2. Brake the cobs in half, then the kernels just had to be sort of pushed off one-by-one from the broken end. 
   
3. Cut out the cardstock pattern of the corn and color it.
   
4. Child will glue the kernels onto the corn cob pattern to make his own Indian corn.
   
   
5. Use crepe paper to make the husk.
   
   
   
   
   

Bow and Arrow

Materials:

• Sharp knife
• Popsicle Stick
• Dental Floss
• Q-Tip

Directions:

1. Cut 4 small notches on the popsicle stick 2 on either end.
2. Soak the popsicle stick in water for over an hour.
   
3. Tie floss around one end of the popsicle stick and wrap it a few times.
   
4. Gently bend the popsicle stick and wrap and tie the floss on the other end making sure the floss is taut and on the same side of the popsicle stick on both ends.
5. Cut off one end of the Q-tip. You might want to make a few arrows.
   
6. U fine point pens to decorate the bow. (The boys loved having wars with Daddy with these little bows).