Cherokee games

Show your child pictures and help her create miniature Cherokee homes out of the clay as well. Fry bread is popular among several Native American tribes although they all make slightly differently. Let your child flour and knead the dough gently, but don't overwork it. Divide the dough into 4-inch flat discs and fry in hot oil for about 2 minutes on each side, until it is golden brown.

Enjoy as is, sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar, or top it with meat like you would a taco and enjoy. Have your child roll the mixture into 2 or 3-inch balls. Drop the balls into slow boiling water to cook for about 30 minutes. Play modified versions of some of the traditional games Cherokee children used to play. For one game, children must try to throw a dart throw a rolling plastic hoop.

As real darts can be dangerous for children, make pipe cleaner darts for the kids to try to throw through a hoop. The Native American game known as "chunkey" involved rolling a round stone on smooth ground, while two players threw spears, trying to get their spears closest to the stone. But Lenape kids did have dolls and toys such as miniature bows and arrows. Lenape games for teenagers and adults included lacrosse, which was played only by boys and men, and a kicking football game , which both genders played together.

They celebrate their religious and traditional festivals by native rituals, dances and food. It is normal that every nation, every culture and every group of people have their own traditions. It is the traditional celebrations that keep the Cherokee identity alive today.

Fun Facts about the Cherokee Sequoyah was a famous Cherokee who invented a writing system and alphabet for the Cherokee language. Cherokee art included painted baskets, decorated pots, carvings in wood, carved pipes, and beadwork. They would sweeten their food with honey and maple sap. The food that the Cherokee tribe ate included deer venison , bear, buffalo, elk, squirrel, rabbit, opossum and other small game and fish.

Their staple foods were corn , squash and and beans supplemented with wild onions, rice, mushrooms, greens, berries and nuts. The tribal diet commonly consisted of foods that were either gathered, grown, or hunted. The three sisters — corn, beans , and squash — were grown. Wild greens, mushrooms, ramps, nuts, and berries were collected.

Deer, bears, birds, native fish, squirrels, groundhogs, and rabbits were all hunted. Cherokee men shaved their heads and women wore their hair long. Men tattooed themselves and, in times of war, painted their faces.

The women did not have tattoos or painted faces. The Cherokee used canoes and dogs when they traveled. Cherokee Tribe History. Traditional, linguistic, and archeological evidence shows that the Cherokee originated in the north, but they were found in possession of the south Allegheny region when first encountered by De Soto in Their relations with the Carolina colonies began years later. Clay — The Cherokee and Chickasaw both fashion pipes made from fired clay, however these are only used for social smoking.

They use small reed cane pipestems made from river cane. These pipes are made from aged river clay hardened in a hot fire. Native Americans played games as part of tribal ceremonies and also to teach skills to children through these games. Games were played ceremoniously to bring luck like rain, good harvests, drive away evil spirits, or just bring people together for a common purpose.

Boys and girls played separately. Pupils are encouraged to develop their native skills. Native Americans used games to teach their children safety, strength, agility, and sportsmanship. The games were fun but they had purpose.

Cherokee adults played two major games: basket dice, a game of chance, and stickball, a form of lacrosse. The minor games have not survived well and are poorly documented. The two major games, on the other hand, can be studied in detail. Their history provides important information on the secularization of major rituals, and on the way in which modern games originated in the ritual forms of lost religions.

Men played against women, with a ceremonial as the stakes. The basket game was integrated into several major rituals which took place every year.

In the basket game, six dice were boun To equalize the sides, the strongest man pulled with the women and the weakest woman pulled with the men; these two faced one another, being at the front of each line. The game was won when one side succeeded in pulling the other across a line. Betting occurred before the game. As in several other games, the losers provided the food for a shared ritual meal.

A game closely related to tug of war was played between men and women on the ball ground at the end of a stickball game. Most of the games played by the Cherokee outlived the other ceremonies associated with them. At present, with the obsolescence of the native belief system and of its ceremonial cycles, some traditional games have disappeared. A few, like lacrosse, have become completely secularized.

The Cherokee provide an unusual case, where the original nature of the games is still very apparent, and the tra Moses Owl of Birdtown owned a stone ball about five inches in diameter that his grandfather said was used to play chunkey ball, but it is more likely to have been used in the shotput or stone-throwing game.

The Indians offered many possible suggestions as to their use, but no one recognized them as parts of a game. In the northern woodlands and western Great Lakes the thunderstorm was the lacrosse. In the Southeast, on the other hand, the game in the clouds is played by the Twin Gods, believed to be the grandsons of the creator. The lightning bolt is the path of their ball.