Meadowcroft Rock Shelter

Natalie found out late last school year that she is part Cherokee. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that since then she's been very passionate about learning about Native Americans. I found her the Cherokee alphabet and a brief dictionary online. She spent a lot of the summer writing words from this dictionary.  She has already taken this alphabet into her new class and told them all about it as well as checked out all the school library books on Native Americans.

She took this one step further by asking us all summer on a consistent basis if she can live in our backyard - so she can live like the Native Americans did. When she finally realized we weren't joking when we told her "no" she asked me to paint her ceiling blue, her walls green and to get green carpet installed in her room. "If I can't live outside then I want my room to look like outside," she told me. (we came to a happy compromise, but that's for another post.)

Saturday we surprised her by taking the kids to Meadowcroft Rock Shelter, a archeological dig about an hour from us that's open to the public. Once a year they have a Native American celebration where re-enactors come and present the way of life of those they think lived in the rock shelter. We tried our hand at using an atlatl (at-lattle) to throw a spear, much like natives would have done thousands of years ago (they believe the rock shelter was used during the 15th century).  

We all know I'm not competitive at all so when I say my spear came closest to the fake deer take it as just information I'm putting out there, certainly not as bragging. 

The Native American village is not the main attraction of Meadowcroft, but that's what we came to see so that's where we spent the bulk of our time. The village consists of a rustic pine tree fence (tree trunks hewn into post, fixed into the ground pretty close together with pine branches woven between them to create a fence) in a big loop encompassing several huts and work stations. 

We got to see animals being skinned (real, flesh and blood animals like a deer and groundhog)

...then cooked over a large fire. Dana was impressive. She was cooking snapping turtle, frog legs, duck, rabbit, venison, the ground hog, and a turkey was being processed as we were leaving. The re-enactors live there for the weekend so they were actually eating everything she was cooking.  She also had a medium-sized pumpkin up near the fire that she was cooking wild rice in (you can see it in the lower middle of the picture). She said at the end she would add walnuts and cranberries to the rice then scrape the pumpkin flesh as she dipped out portions. Um, hello! Sounds like a new Thanksgiving side dish!

In conjunction with wanting to sleep outside, Natalie's also been asking what her people wore, ate, and did. Now she knows. She told many of the folks there she was part-Cherokee and asked what tribe they were from. Dana informed her it's not "tribe" but a "nation." She also told Natalie that Cherokee didn't live in tee-pees, but woven huts, much like this one: 

Just think - had the European's not come my children could be living in this right now (with a different mother since I'm totally European. So I guess they technically would be Henry's kids and not mine, but you get my drift.)

Making clay pinch pots. Ryan had more fun with the bowl of water to wash the clay off your hands. 

 Natalie and Henry getting taught how to make a duck (toy) out of cattail reeds. I love the look on Natalie's face. And yes, that Indian is wearing a loin cloth...

Learning how to make rope from plant fiber. 

Learning how to poison fish with green walnuts. (Dear PETA, it just kills the fish in a small area and they weren't putting in enough toxins this weekend to kill anything. Just demonstrating the methods of my husband's ancestors.) 

Looking at a beaver-skin bag (Dear PETA, you wouldn't have liked this weekend at all. Not sure you would've made good natives. In fact, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have lived very long). 

This guy was awesome. He took about an hour to explain all the different ways of trapping fish. He waded through water practically naked in chilly weather. He talked about different gigs (three-pronged aquatic trapping spears), fish spears, nets, and of course the poisonous walnuts. 

At the end he opened it up for questions. Natalie asked approximately 362. He smiled at me and said, "she's really inquisitive." In a nice way, like he was impressed, not in an "wow, I really want to leave and this kid won't stop asking questions" way. I told him she recently found out she has Cherokee in her background. He immediately tailored his talk to her and showed her all the things in his stash that "her ancestors" would've used. He shared that he is also part Cherokee. He let her (and only her out of about 10 kids) hold and practice using one of the gigs. She was in heaven. 

Ainsley also enjoyed the day. She loved making the pottery and rope. She took extra fibers to make more rope on our shuttle ride to the creek. She said, "Look, mom. I can do it with my eyes closed. I'm a good rope maker!"  There was so much to see with the re-enactment that the girls and I didn't see the colonial village or the rock shelter. Maybe next year since we know Natalie will want to visit her peeps. 

*I highly recommend this outing for families with elementary school children. Cost is relatively low at $10 for adults and $5 for kids 7 and older... Ainsley and Ryan were free! Not sure how I would've felt without the Indians there though....they really made it a special day for us.