Kindergartners study Native American Culture

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The LASF humanities program at the kindergarten level focuses on the culture of Native American Indians. And what better way to study Native American customs than with LASF instructors Miss Joy (Rosenberg) and Miss Dorothy (Owens). 

Throughout three one-hour sessions five regional tribes are examined:  Pomo (West), Hopi (Southwest), Blackfeet (Plains), Mohawk (Northeast), and Cherokee (Southeast). With the use of artifacts such as jewelry, masks, baskets and musical instruments, as well as photographs and video Miss Joy and Miss Dorothy bring the Native American culture to life.

One central theme throughout the sessions is the Native American's respect for nature. Miss Joy and Miss Dorothy explain how all of the items used by Native Americans for daily living were a product of nature. The use of a natural material by a Native American was complete and without waste. A buffalo's skin may be used for a teepee, the meat to eat, the intestines for a strapping material, the bones for a tool.

Another theme of the program was the diversity of the tribes. Photographs of the clay houses of the Hopi who lived in the desert region and the Blackfeet teepees made from animal skin on the plains were important examples of how differently these two tribes lived.

Many musical instruments were shown to the children. Rattles made of gourds, turtle shells, cocoons filled with small pebbles. An instrument akin to the castanet was made of deer hooves, and a piece of wood was carved into a flute. Deer bones were used to make whistles. A hollowed out tree trunk, with animal skin stretched to cover the openings, created a drum.

Certainly the variety of instruments presented expanded everyone's mind, including my own, and made the resourcefulness and creativity of the Native American real to us.

Our kindergartners learned the importance of masks and face paint to the Native American culture (see image at right). The children were shown both wooden and animal masks, which were used by tribes for different purposes . The Blackfeet constructed masks using the head of the animal (buffalo, coyote, fox, etc.) they would be hunting. The Mohawk of the forest created wooden masks worn only by the tribe doctor. Hopi masks were worn to ward off crows from the fields. 

Similarly, face and body paint played an important part of Native American life. The discussion of pow-wows, to gather the tribe to celebrate a good corn harvest, a successful buffalo hunt, for the preparation for or return from war, included talk of the face and body paint and the image a Native American wished to create. Ten minutes of a pow-wow video was shown to the children to put the images all together. The gathering of the people, their clothing, face and body paint, masks, jewelry, music and singing.

The kindergartners' third session culminated in playing a children's game using a toy hatchet and creating a pow-wow of their own. To the beat of Miss Joy's drum, wearing a clay necklace they made themselves and a beaded bracelet, a gift from Miss Joy and Miss Dorothy, the children circled the room in a traditional Native American dance.

What were some of the comments of the kindergartners from these sessions? As one might expect the chatter all centered around seeing and doing. "I liked making the clay necklace", "I liked the dancing", "I liked eating the popcorn", "I liked seeing the masks and the jewelry". The enthusiasm and the variety of the answers are not only a credit to the fascinating lives of the Native Americans but also to Joy Rosenberg and Dorothy Owens who communicate so effectively the reality of these lives to our children. 01/01

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