A First American Experience (1.5 hours)

Experience a Native American visit in the classroom. Students will discover the tools, the foods, and the culture of Connecticut's early Native Americans. Hands-on examination of reproduction artifacts, storytelling and samples of native foods will bring to life the ways of our first native inhabitants. Presentation is adapted to the grade level for which it is scheduled.

In the classroom presentation the instructor will set out reproduction artifacts on blankets and will have the students seated in a half circle on the floor of the classroom. The instructor clad in a deerskin outfit will recount in the tone and cadence of a native storyteller the arrival of the first peoples to the Americas. Students will learn how these people followed animals over a land bridge that connected Asia and North America near the Bering Straits over 30,000 years ago. And how generations of continental migration finally brought their descendents to Connecticut over 9,000 years ago. A description of how these people built their dwellings, called ptukwiens, homes made entirely from tree bark, sapling, and bark lacing will be brought to life using an accurate scale model of the home. The instructor will pass around examples of native plants that were used for food, medicines and flavorings. Students will make and sample some fruit leather, a mixture of dried fruits and berries used as traveling food. Students will learn of the “Three Sisters” of corn, beans, and squash and how they were used in ‘Succotash’ a stew that supplied a complete balanced protein. Students will grind corn with a stone grinder and learn how journey cakes were made. Samples of popcorn and pumpkinseeds will reveal that the native diet was not too different from ours today. Then the hunting of animals, curing of meats and the preparation of hides will be explored. And a sample of pemmican, a mixture of dried meat and berries will complete the taste testing. Next the instructor will focus on native tools by passing around a variety of reproduction artifacts made from bark, wood, bone, shell, and stone. To finish the lesson on tools the students learn how an arrow was made and will get a chance to drill into a piece of soapstone using a simple stone twist drill. In concluding the program the students will get a chance to make an amulet, a necklace made from cordage and an arrow point, after which the instructor will tell a story of the Tunxis tribe, a tribe that once inhabited the Farmington River valley.