This event is also part of our Red Nations Remembering events for December. During the forced march west, our ancestors spent many days walking in the cold. Though we cannot go back or change the past, we can certainly do something to help people in the present!
The December meeting is also our White Elephant Gift Exchange. Please bring a "white elephant" gift, (something from your home that is of absolutely no use to anyone!) and we will draw names and start the bartering. It is one of the most popular meetings of the year, so mark your calendars. Bringing a dessert to share is always appreciated at this meeting.
Buffalo Bird Women’s Garden: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians. First published in 1917 by anthropologist Gilbert Wilson who chronicles a year in the life of Buffalo Bird Woman, a Hidatsa Indian born in 1839 in North Dakota who describes preparing the soil, and seeds she grew, harvested, dried, cooked and saved. A packet of Shield Figure bean, once grown in her garden, is available with the book for a unique teaching experience or addition to any garden. Book only, $9. Book and seeds, $11.
Both books may be ordered through Seed Saver Exchange, (319) 382-5872.
Since completion of the quilt the Shawl Society has been playing. We’ve traveled, gone shopping and have just generally been having a good time recuperating from all the hard work of "quilting." We are now back on track and ready to begin our classes starting in January, 1997.
We are opening our classes to our children age 9 and up. It is an opportunity for our young not only to learn beading, basket weaving, etc., but also much can be learned by listening, watching and participating. Of course, we encourage all of you to come join us.
Indian legend describes a way for a pursuer to find the trail of his quarry when it has been lost. If an arrow is shot in the direction the hunted has taken, it will not return. But if an arrow is shot in the wrong direction, it will return to the place from which it was launched. Young Kan-a-ti wished to know the direction his father had taken; so, standing on the highest summit of the mountains, he shot arrows in the four directions of the compass. All of his arrows returned to him, and in his wrath and depression, he shot an arrow straight into the sky; this arrow never returned. He knew, then, that the Chief had gone to the land of the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit was so enraged at the young warrior for shooting into the land of the spirits that he sent his thunder at him there on the mountain top. Kan-a-ti was so frightened and amazed the he prayed to the Great Spirit, asking him to save him from the thunder. The Great Spirit promised to stop the thunder, but decreed that smoke should cloud the mountains forever as a warning against a repetition of his rash act in shooting the arrows. Thus the Great Smokies got their name.