Hopi Story and Research (CNG)

My Totem Pole

2009-12-08T07:48:00.000-08:00

This is a Totem Pole I created with the people listed as authors (below pic):

Black Hawk Totem Pole

By Nina, Thomas, Alex, and Casey

Black Hawk was a leader and warrior of the Sauk tribe. Unlike most Native Americans would have, he fought on the British side in the war of 1812.

The yellow and orange stripes represent the dry weather here
The blue and green stripes represent nearby bodies of water like Lake Michigan
The smiling faces represent our happiness
The stars represent astronomy and archaeoastronomy
The deep red wings represent courage
The vivid colors in the beak represent power
The blue moon slivers represent our rare sadness
The brown face represents animal life
The various peace signs represent our peace
The wise eyes represent knowledge and insight

There was once a famous Native American chief named Makataimeshekiakiak (usually known as Black Hawk). He was the warrior chief of the Sauk tribe and fought on the British side in the war of 1812. Our table admires him for his bravery in the war and that is why we named our table after him. Also, he was born in northern Illinois and we live in Illinois. The reasons above should tell you why we picked this group name.

Flickr

2009-12-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

My user at flickr is 5jcity2000 if you want more of my pics.

The inside of the Roundhouse

2009-12-01T09:07:00.000-08:00

This is the inside of the roundhouse I created (below). I created the Native American doll with a josefina American girl doll borrowed from my friend Nina. I posted this pic on flickr, then edited it.

Roundhouse Native American Habitat

2009-11-24T13:55:00.001-08:00

DSC_0019
Originally uploaded by 5J City2009

This is a model of a roundhouse that I, CNG, and some friends created.

Pomo and Roundhouse

2009-11-24T13:28:00.000-08:00

The Pomo

By Alex, Thomas, Nina, and Casey

Typed by Casey

The Pomo Native Americans were a fascinating tribe. The Pomo lived in the American Southeastern Woodlands, a warm climate with little rain. The Pomo mostly gathered their food from plants, such as seeds, nuts, and berries, but the region also supplied plenty of fish, deer, and rabbit for the Pomo to eat. They slept in unique structures called roundhouses, which were primarily made of wooden posts hidden by clay and stone. Their rich culture offered superior crafts, such as baskets and jewelry, that are now valued in museums.

The Pomo Native Americans used stone and wood posts to build a roundhouse. Then, they put a bark or reed mat roof on top and coated the posts with clay and stones, making a thick outer wall. After, they would build small fires inside the roundhouses. No smoke holes were added, as the smoke could vent through the mat roof itself. Roundhouses were not meant to be permanent structures for many reasons: firewood grew scarce, and dying bark and reeds in the roof presented safety problems and attracted pests. Also, the Pomo were nomads, which means that they moved around a lot, didn’t stay in the same places for a long time.

The Southeastern region supplied a variety of food. They also liked to eat most of the food, although some foods were disliked by seniors and young children. Some foods they ate were fish and clams. They even gathered nuts and wild grains! They ate many nuts that today we have not discovered and named. They also ate acorns, salmon, surf fish, abalone, mussels, sea lions, and bulb plants. The Pomo loved deer and small animals that were easy to hunt, like rabbit. The above reasons show that the Pomo ate a variety of foods, all of which their region supplied.

In the Southeastern Woodlands there is a little Native American habitat called a roundhouse. In a roundhouse there were many unique things such as the floor, the posts, and the shape of the roundhouse. The floor was ten to fifteen feet below the ground. Also, the roundhouse was ten to fifteen feet across. The roof was supported on posts that were made out of wood and were arranged around the outside of the floor. In the middle was the central post. The central post was the most important. On top of the posts they laid bushes, leaves, and bunches of sticks. On top of that they put red clay, then spread red clay all over the house. They made the house into a round shape, perhaps because the roof fit over the big round hole they dug when making the floor. The Pomo loved to tell long stories called myths. For religion, they followed medicine men and prophets who would have strong dreams and they would use those dreams as the base of their religion. There were 5 or 6 clans in a village and all had a certain basket or bowl in their roundhouse where they would place special objects. Children might put an interesting stone in the basket, or a strange-colored leaf. The basket/bowl and objects in it were symbolic, for the children would place things in it when they were going through good or bad times and when they died, the objects would be like the story of their life. The basket/bowl usually had simple designs such as zigzags or small circles, just bigger than polka dots. The much important basket was placed in the center of the roundhouse, right near the center post.

The climate of the Southeastern region was truly fascinating. The climate was thrilling because it was unpredictable and had many hazardous storms. In the southeast, the weather was unpredictable because it would be sunny and then the next day it would be cloudy! Finally, there was hazardous weather in the southeast. There were floods, hurricanes, and even some tornadoes!

The Pomo and other tribes of the Southeastern region were remarkable because of their habitat, the roundhouse, the region’s weather and food, and the regions supplies that were available for making a roundhouse.

Rooster and Mocking Bird

2009-11-17T11:48:00.000-08:00

A great Hopi story, this tale is about Mockingbird and how Rooster tried to make the sun rise to win a fight over a fair maiden.

To see the story go to: http://www.indigenouspeople.net/rooster.htm

Works Consulted

2009-11-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

Works Consulted:

Piki Bread

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piki_bread

Journal by Choviohoya, from Hopi Tribe

http://www.20000-names.com/male_native_american_names.htm
http://www.20000-names.com/female_native_american_names.htm

Hopi Facts

Hopi.ppt (you can download this at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=hopi.ppt&aq=f&oq=&aqi= it will be the first one on the list)

Piki Bread

2009-11-16T11:36:00.000-08:00

Piki Bread:

The Hopi tribe made grayish-blue bread called piki. This interesting bread was made of blue corn and culinary ash. It is very dry, although it melts in the mouth. It is thin, almost transparent flat bread that is rolled into a cylinder. “The best is almost weightless.” says Native American Cuisine.

How Piki Bread is Made:

The first step to making piki is to grind up the blue corn. Then, you must add the ashes and some water until it is smooth. Next, the Hopi people would layer the creamy mixture onto a hot rock. Then the bread looked almost overcooked, they would remove this thin sheet from the stone. They would repeat this six or seven times and then roll all the pieces together. Then, the delicate corn smell would gather nearby people it was so good.

Do You Want to Make Piki?:

Here’s how you can: (copied from http://nativerecipes.com/7.html)

Ingredients
3 Tablespoon Chamisa Ash
(cooking ash comes from the burning up of various plants)
1/2 Cup Cold Water
6 Cups Finely Ground Cornmeal
8 Cups Boiling Water
6-8 Cups Cold Water
Method
+ Mix chamisa ash with 1/2 cup cold water and set aside
+ Put cornmeal in piki bowl, push 1/3 of the meal to the back of the bowl
+ Pour 4 cups boiling water into the 2/3 amount of cornmeal and stir until well blended
+ Add remaining boiling water and stir until moist and stiff
+ Gradually strain ash water through cheesecloth into the dough just until it turns blue
+ When dough has cooled enough to touch knead until smooth
+ Add the dry meal gradually
+ Set dough aside and build fire under the piki stone and allow to heat up
+ Meanwhile, gradually knead cold water into the dough until it is a thin consistency smooth batter, add more water during making process if necessary
+ Wipe off hot stone and oil with bone marrow or cooked brains, repeat as necessary during making process
+ Scoop small amount of batter from bowl with fingers and spread tissue paper thin across stone from left to right, eliminating any lumps
+ Dip fingers into batter again to cool them and bring out another scoop
+ Continue to spread and layer batter across stone until completely covered
+ When piki is done it will seperate from the stone, gently lift away and place it on the piki tray
+ The first piece should be fed to the fire
+ Spread more batter onto the stone and let cook, then place the prepared piki back onto the stone to soften
+ Fold two ends of the piki 1/4 way toward center, then gently roll piki away from you
+ Place back on Piki Tray
+ Remove Piki sheet from stone and spread with more batter to repeat process until all batter is used
+ If Piki tears simply return to batter to dissolve and reuse

Hopi Facts

2009-11-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

The Hopi was an interesting tribe because of the many different foods, clothing, and shelter.

Foods:

The Hopi ate 24 different types of corn, which, as you can tell, is one of their main foods. They made an interesting type of bread called Piki (see next entry) out of the blue corn. They also ate black beans, yellow beans, and purple string beans. They also ate peaches, melons, squash, and apricots.

Clothes:

The Hopi’s clothes were made out of animal skins and cotton and on a normal day, the men wore tunics and shirts, and the women wore skirts or dresses. All Hopi clothes were loose fitting. For shoes, they wore sandals or moccasins, common Native American footwear. In the winter, all Hopi people added shawls and blankets to their clothes for warmth. The chief wore red moccasins and had a trace of blue on one shoulder. Other than that, he wore all white.

Shelters:

The Hopi people made pueblos and reed houses depending on where they lived. Pueblos were made out of stones, mud, and clay called adobe that is made to protect people inside it from blistering heat. Reed houses were made of reed mats that covered a wooden pole frame.