The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-05-08
SOME INDIAN WAYS.

Some teachers who are trying to un-
derstand history, not by studying bat
ties. but by studying peoples-learning
just how people used to build their
houses. how they used to cook and eat
their food. and what they used to eat
recently went into camp on the Potomac
river near the site of stone quarry
used by the Indians long before there
we're white men in this country. They
built for themselves the same kind Of
houses the Indians lived in, and made
the same kind of cooking vessels. These
cooking vessels were made of soapstone.
To make these vessels knives and chisels
were necessary, and these the Indians
made from the hard stone, or flint, that
was in the soapstone. These tools also
had sale among other tribes of In
dians, 30 that the making of them formed
a business for the tribes on the Poto-
mac. To make the cooking utensils the
stone was shaped on the inside before it
was cut from the quarry. The Indian
who wanted to make a pot began by
making hole in the stone. The hole he
made larger by cutting, gouging. and
rubbing until the pot was the size he
wanted; then he began cutting out the
stone outside this hole, and when he had
cut it out he rubbed and chiseled it into
shape-rude. but wonderful when you
remember how rude we're his tools.
These pots were sold to the tribes who
did not live in a reg ion possessing such
valuable stone. The tools and pots were
exchangedfor the commodities that other
tribes produced. No doubt,thep. as now,
some of the Indians excelled in the
making of these articles, and they
doubtless were the prosperous members
of the tribe. A teacher who has studied
the habits of the Indians says that when
an Indian wanted to make tool he
walked along the streams until he found
a stone shaped somewhat like the imple-
ment he wished to make. Then, by
rubbing and picking with other stones,
shaped his tool, polishing it by the aid of
sand and water. The Indians made
drill which could bore hole through
flint this they operated by the use of the
hands and teeth. For cooking oysters
and clans the Indians used one method
that possibly all the boys and girls who
go to the seashore have seen used. They
heated stones. put the shelfsh on these
stones, and covered them with damp
seaweed. So this method of cooking is
truly American. The Indians threw the
shells of the oysters about their houses;
sometimes they built new houses on top
Of these piles of shells; and the teachers
who are studying this part of history
have found, on digging through these
piles of shells, cooking utensils, tools,
weapons of warfare, and objects the In.
dams used to decorate their houses.
The Indians on the Potomac were part
OF the confederation OF the Algonquins,
governed by Powhatan, whose daughter
married a white man and went to Eng
land. Powhatan lived further south,
and his immediate tribe we're farmers.
Their principal food was corn. Outside
OF the houses of this tribe great log pots
or mortars were firmly fastened, in
which the corn was pounded and
smashed. In Mexico the people use the
same method today. The women and
the children ground the corn. The fish
hooks of the Indians we're made OF bone,
but they knew how to shoot fish. Their
nets were made of the fiber or the stalks
of certain vegetables. This tribe of In
dians used wild rice for food because it
grew in the swamps about their homes.
The Outlook.