Saturday, May 25, 2019

At Home in the Forest: The Ohop Indian Village Experience

The Seabury School six through eight year olds recently had a delightful visit to the Ohop Indian Village where we used all of our senses to experience the Northwest Native American life. 

We have done a lot of reading and activities at school but there is nothing like rolling up your sleeves and experiencing it!

Ready? Set? Touch everything!
(Except for the poisonous plants!)

Welcome to the Ohop Indian Village
The Valley of the Sound of Rushing Water

The Navigators and Treasure Seekers went back in time before

Walmarts and Costcos
Electricity and running water
Iphones and Ipads

and learned how to survive and thrive
as Ohop Native American children.

To the Native Americans, the forest was their home, their play ground, their school, their grocery store, their pharmacy, their lumber yard, their hadward store, their everything! No wonder they highly respected it and took good care of it!

The spring home
Sitting on our chairs and listening carefully.


Smelling the sweet grass


Play was an important way to learn the skills necessary for survival.

An impromptu ring toss game

Making the "friendship" mark on his face

With this mark, others knew you were friendly 
and would talk to you.

All of us chose to be friendly!

Using ironwood tongs to put hot rocks into a waterproof basket to boil water


This basket, called the Mount Rainier basket, is made from bear grass, a light colored grass that dyes well. We were asked to not touch this 300 year old artifact.


Matching furs and tracks to the forest animals


A stick, a rock, and a bone make a fine working drill.

Sweet grass, cattail, bear grass and cedar strips


Learning how to be still, aim, and hit a target

Aiming at the BEAR!


The summer home


Making music on a plank drum


Braiding is another skill to learn.


Spear throwing practice

Sharpening a slate arrowhead


Hollowing out a canoe

The winter home would have been a long plank house with beds along the sides for sleeping.


Making ornamental jewelry

Grinding corn using a stone mortar and pestle


Pounding soaked cedar bark into soft fibers


Cedar bark fibers could then be twisted into cordage 
and made into cloth.
Diapers, stuffed with cattail fluff, were made this way!

Dressing up and carding mountain goat wool


Rolling the wool on his leg and using a spindle 
to make mountain goat yarn

Weaving the yarn - over, under, over, under

Tanning a deer hide

Making her mark for the future - a harbor seal petroglyph


Even this teacher gets in on the immersion experience.
And look, she's friendly, too!

Thank you, Ohop Indian Village, 
for such a rich immersion experience!!



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