The Birchbark House is book one of a four series set of books about a young, Ojibwe girl called Omakayas:
This first book is separated into four sections – the four seasons of the year. Each chapter we read we find much to talk about and learn about. In addition there are many parts of the story we are able to attempt to replicate. This post will cover all the activities we did from the second section of the book:
Making some Ojibwe Sage Tobacco
At the beginning of the Autumn chapters Deydey is smoking with his friends. We had heard about sage tobacco being smoked during meetings and also used as offerings before crossing lakes or for bumper rice crops. So we decided to make some of our own:
Once this is dried we will be crushing it and making a tobacco pouch to put it in, as well as trying our hand at pipe making!
Playing a Game of White Man’s Chess
White man’s chess is mentioned a couple of times and as the guys play quite a bit of chess I thought I would capture it and call it Ojibwe work!
Drying Berries and Corn for Storage
This is where things got fun for all of us. This scene was seen frequently this week with the children doing all sorts of projects in the kitchen:
The first was preparing food for storage over the winter months. One way they did this was to dry the food. Drying both berries and corn was specifically described. The corn was dried in a pot over a low fire with constant stirring. The berries were placed in the sun until dried. We had no sun so we popped the berries in the oven on a low heat. The corn we did stir. And stir. And stir. We all took turns and we all got bored. So we all copped out and popped that in the oven with the berries:
One observant child happen to mention that both berries and corn looked incinerated rather than simply dried and on further inspection she was right. Obviously if we had to survive in winter on all our food prepared and dried for storage we wouldn’t fare well for long.
Making some Parfleches for Food Storage
Frankly? These were superfluous to requirement as our dried food was inedible. That said it was for our Ojibwe doll family and they were made of plastic so I doubted they would notice. So we went ahead with our plans. Parfleches are containers for storing the dried food. We made some leather ones and also some birch bark cones for the maple sugar. The ones below are the leather ones:
Making Bannock bread (Ojibwe fried bread) with Berry Dip
I had been looking forward to making Ojibwe fried bread since the moment I had seen a mouth-watering pin with a picture of it on. We decided to put the berries that had escaped incineration to good use and we made a berry dip.
I can’t even begin to tell you just how good both the bread and the dip were. Think fresh doughnuts, so fresh they are still hot. Oh, it was gastronomical heaven!
Maple Sugar in Cones
And finally we made maple sugar. This was quick, simple and again tasted divine. T boiled up a whole bottle of pure maple syrup, whilst the rest of us made cones from birch bark printed paper:
You see that whole bowl of maple sugar? Yes, well somehow over the afternoon it all disappeared. Now I’m not saying I was entirely innocent but those five ‘who lil’ ol’ me?’ faces which peered up at me when I asked where it gone also were not quite as innocent as they would have me believe. I did not eat a whole bowl of maple sugar all by myself. I didn’t. Honest. So they must have. And that’s all I’m saying on the matter.
Nokomis’ Blessing on the Food
Nokomis recites a blessing on their stores of food which I had the children copy:
Posts relating to the Native American study we have done this week:
- Ojibwe Art Study: Floral Designs
- Ojibwe Oral Tradition
- Ojibwe Doll Dress Up
- Introducing the Ojibwe Tribe
Next week I will be posting about our curriculum choices for after Christmas, to allow us time to finish some Ojibwe projects we are in the middle of. I hope you all have a lovely weekend, filled with lots of love and lots of laughter!
Linking up appreciatively here