playin' with the Podunks

Monday's Museum Explorers class was all about the Podunks, the Native American tribe that lived on the farm lands of The Five Mile Tract, as it was called back then, prior to the European Settlers moving in. The fabulous Ms Anne showed the kids all sorts of really cool artifacts that really helped them get a feel for what it was like living life as a Podunk.

J tries out the heavy mortar and pestle, both made from rock. These were used by the Podunks for grinding foods, such as corn to make flour. They also passed around baskets and pieces of bowls used for food gathering and cooking, and a hollowed-out gourd that was used for carrying water.




Zoo Boy checks out the museum's collection of arrowheads. They also got to handle an axe head, which was quite large, and were able to try their hand at using a flaking tool (made from a deer antler) to shape a piece of quartz the way the Podunks did. We also examined earrings and pendants that the Podunks made by shaping rocks and smoothing them. And we got to play with "stone dolls", pieces of stalactites that the Podunk children found and played with.

The kids especially enjoyed using some of the instruments that the Podunks made, like this drum (made from an animal hide stretches across a round from a tree trunk), and the rain stick (made from plant materials).


We also found out that the Podunks didn't last long after the European Settlers arrived -- they had made enemies amongst the other local tribes prior this time period and were absorbed by other cultures fairly quickly once the Settlers began occupying their lands. Sad to think that a once thriving culture could have disappeared so quickly.