Resources I Used

  Here are the resources I used.


http://www.bigorrin.org/cheyenne_kids.htm
http://www.bronsonbattlecreek.com/services/.../nativeambabynames.shtml

http://www.google.com

http://www.flickr.com 
http://www.20000-names.com/female_native_american_names.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheyenne_people
http://www.native-languages.org/cheyenne_culture.htm

Thanks to these people:

The U.S. National Archives' photostream
 Museum of Photographic Arts Collections' photostream 

 For letting me use their pictures!!! 

Thank You!!!!!!

Teepee Model

   Below is a picture of our region's home, the teepee. Our region is the Western Plains. Since we are the Western Plains, we are nomads. Nomads travel a lot, so the teepee is easy to take down. The materials are simple. There are wooden poles for the base, and there is buffalo hide on the outside over the poles to cover.
    For our real project, we started by scratch. For the first part of the teepee, we got a piece of plain cardboard for the base. After that, we got a bottle of glue, and fake grass. We dribbled the glue over the cardboard, and then we spread it around with a stick. We then sprinkled the fake grass over it, and if it was in clumps, we spread that around too. The next thing we got was dirt and woodchips from outside on the playground. I brought some pebbles from my house. We took the pebbles, and we each got three pebbles to glue onto the cardboard. We sprinkled the dirt over the grass, and pebbles. There was some leftover cardboard from when we cut out the base, so we used that as buffalo hide. We cut out a circle for the teepee base. I folded the cardboard into the shape of a teepee, and we glued it together with tacky glue. Anna made a zigzag piece of fabric, and she put stitches into it so it looked handmade. I cut out a tiny circle of cardboard, and I colored it in with a black marker, and kept on coloring it until it was full, and really dark black. I folded a tiny tab on the circle, and glued the tab onto the teepee with tacky glue. We used wooden sticks, and put it through the tiny hole at the top of the teepee. The last thing we did was making a name plate. It said: WESTERN PLAINS TEEPEE By: Anna, Reilly, Jordan, Jaylen, and Demetrielle. Here is a picture of our teepee.

Photo Gallery

This is a picture of a family standing
in front of a tipi (The Western Plains
home).














                                                                                     
                                 
This is a picture of a Native American woman
with a horse pulling a travois.














This is a picture of a buffalo. Native Americans
hunted buffalo.


This is a picture of a Native American
in a traditional headdress.

The Wind

   There was once a girl named Istas. She lived with her father, Mai. One day, Istas was out harvesting crops when something came up to her.
   "If we can breathe, why isn't there any breath in the air?" she wondered.
   She went inside, and asked her dad the same thing she thought. Later on, her father went out to go hunt buffalo. When he came back, he thought the same thing.
    "You are right, Istas. You are a very thoughtful girl." he said.
   The next day, Istas went out with her father, Mai, to look for the breath. They said they would try to look all over the world if they had to just to find the breath. They looked for minutes, hours, days, weeks, years! They couldn't find the breath. Sooner or later, Mai gave up.
  "We can't go on any longer. We have looked everywhere we could."
  "Pa, we NEED to find this breath."
  "We have looked already. We will go home now, Istas."
  "Okay pa. How long have we gone?"
  "Longer than you think, Istas."
  When they arrived back at their tipi, they went to bed, waiting to see if there would be a sign of breath in the morning.
   In the morning, Istas got up before Mai. She went outside of the tipi, and took a deep breath. Inside the tipi where Mai was, he took a deep breath in his sleep the same time as Istas did. When they both breathed out, a gush of air spread far far out, and it was the most amazing thing Istas had ever seen. It spread through all of the trees, all of the clouds, all of the animals, and through Istas, and her father, Mai.
    Mai woke up, and ran over to Istas.
   "What happened!" exclaimed Mai.
   "I have no idea! When I breathed out, there was a gush of air that spread all around!" replied Istas.
   "The breath..." Istas thought aloud.
   "The breath!" They both shouted at the same time.
   "We found the breath!"
  From then on, Istas and her father, Mai made something called the wind, the thing that makes it cold outside, the thing that makes the trees sway, the thing that Istas and her father, Mai created. They never realized they created the wind, but they knew they finally found it. That is how the wind was created.

Researched Information Entry

   There are many tribes in the Western Plains region. Most of them have the same facts. The Cheyenne tribe had quite a few things that weren't like any other tribe. Here is one really interesting one.
Cheyenne women took part in hunting with the men. They drove the buffalo towards the men, who shot them with their longbows.
   Cheyenne artists were famous for their fine quill embroidery, beadwork, pipestone caving, and pottery. For each piece of art, there is a description of it.
  Quill Embroidery
   Quillwork involved softening and dying stiff porcupine quills and weaving them onto leather or birchbark.
   Beadwork
    Beads were carved from shells, coral, turquoise and other stones, copper and silver, wood, amber, ivory, and animal bones, horns and teeth. They were sewn or pasted onto the fabric, or the material you would use. It took Native Americans days to finish the beadwork. In the end, the beadwork looked amazingly professional.
   Pipestone Carving
    Common native pipe-making traditions included a small one-piece stone and ceramic pipes of the Iroquois and Cherokee tribes, wood and antler pipes of the Southwestern Indians, and the post-Columbian tomahawk pipes with a metal pipe bowl and hatchet on opposite ends of the stem.
    Pottery
     The potters pick out their clay, and they soak it to separate out small twigs, pebbles, and other things in the clay. After it is removed, the clay is dried, ground, tempered, and is stored, or used. Water s added to the hard clay and it is smoothed to remove air pockets that might explode while being fired. There are different techniques that different potters use, The finished piece is dried until it is like leather. It is decorated, and then it is fired.
      The food they ate was like any other Native American. They were originally farming people. Women harvested corn, squash, potatoes, and beans. They had fruits, and nuts. They ate buffalo, and smaller game such as birds, and rabbits. They Had many different varieties of food.
        They have a traditional dance called the Sun Dance. It is a religious ceremony practiced by Native Americans.
       Summers, and winters were HOT and FREEZING! In summers, it was more than 100 degrees. In winters, it could drop 40 degrees below zero with heavy snows. The Western Plains was so dry that when it rained, it flooded.
       In entertainment, they loved storytelling, music, and dance. They liked to battle against other Plains Indian tribes. Even though people died, it was still a fun game to them.
      Here are some interesting facts.
    Cheyenne women were in charge of the home.
    They are nomads. Nomads are people who travel. They were only nomads because they followed buffalo. They traveled using horses, and dog travois. There were other ways to travel too.
       Leaders originally wore tall feather headdresses.
       Cheyenne tribes regularly traded with other great plains tribes.
   Here is the Central Cheyenne ritual was the Sun Dance.
   Males could only participate in ceremonies while women stayed in the tipis.

   This is my researched information.

Diary Entry from a Cheyenne Child

      Have you heard my dearest diary?
          Ma and Pa went hunting, and the first arrow they shot, they got it! A large buffalo for us to have for dinner, and for Pa to have more tools for hunting. I am thinking of cooking a buffalo squash stew with a side of corn ears.  Leotie just came from beadwork. She is working on a pair of beaded moccasins, and a beaded necklace. I am very curious on who the moccasins and necklace is for, and when she is going finish. She says she would like to become a professional beadworker.
       Tomorrow, Pa is going out to battle the other tribes. I very much dislike it when he does this because he risks his life for fun! I asked him why he does this, and he said he enjoyed playing around sometimes. I think it is too many times to play around. It makes no sense to me. I don't want to lose him. Even though he is good at things, it does not make me feel safe. Without him, there wouldn't be as good hunting. If only I had an older brother, not sister.
        Just a while ago, my best friend, Lomasi came to my tipi to help me harvest the crops I planted. We harvested corn, squash, potatoes, and beans. We also picked a half of a basket full of nuts. We harvested corn more than anything else. There was quite a few things that the rabbits got into. I wish there was something to prevent the little pests from getting into the crops, and other things they could get into.
            Ma and Pa just came in with the buffalo that I will be needing to cook. I am off to make supper for the entire family unfortunately. The supper will most likely take longer than I expect, now that I see it is getting dark so I should make this my last sentence.

 Goodnight my dearest diary.
             Yours truly,
                      Aponi