Sources I Used

I used the sources...


http://www.google.com/                                               
http://www.bigorrin.org/choctaw_kids.htm
http://www.flickr.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choctaw
http://www4.nau.edu/tribalclimatechange/tribes/gulfcoast.asp
http://www.thebcyclingguitarist.net/studies/trailoftears.htm
http://www.fluffy.demon.nl/american/namtri.htm
http://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=1&o=102294&l=oir&9=choctaw+indians+tribes
http://www.choctawnation.com/
http://www.ewebtnbecom/NACulture/food.htm
http://www.ewebtribe.com/NACulture/games.htm
http://www.nativetech.org/games/
http://www.so84.k12.id.us/farmstid/Native%20American%20Web/choctaw.htm
http://www.dihd.ku.edu/foods/coctaw.html
http://www.choctawnation.com/services/departments/
http://www.ask.com/questions-about/Life-about-the-Choctaw-Tribe
http://www.choctawcasinos.com/
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/oklahoma/
http://www.bronsonattlecreek.com/services/birthcenter/nativeambabynames.shtml
http://www.20000-names.com/female_native_american_names.htm
http://www.20000-names.com/male_native_american_names_02.htm
http://www.wunderground.com/US/OK/Choctaw.html                  

Diary Entry Of 10 Year Old Choctaw Child Day 3

Diary Entry 3

Dearest Diary,

Today was a wonderful and sunny day. In the morning Poloma, Nita, and I didn't have to collect crops   because we already had enough. Also because we woke up kind of late and probably wouldn't have enough time to pick that many crops. My mother gave us cornbread and water for breakfast. Then dad said "Bye Isa. Bye Nita. By Poloma. Bye Fala. I am going hunting and I will try very hard to bring home a bear for us to eat for dinner!" We all shouted "Bye" back to him. Then he took his bow and arrows, jumped on his horse and left. My mother started cooking a soup. Nita, Poloma, and I played with our beaded dolls for a little while. Then my father came home and said "Sorry. I didn't catch a bear today but I did get a turkey and two fish." We were all very grateful that my father brought home some food even though he didn't bring home a bear. Then we had lunch. It was soup with berries and hickory milk. After lunch Poloma, Nita and I played outside. It was a lot of fun. Then it was time to eat again. We ate fish, a stew, cornbread, and hickory milk. In the stew was corn, beans, squash, and turkey. It was delicious. After dinner our family played a game and then my father said "I have a surprise for you girls. When I was out hunting, I passed by the chief's home and he told me to give you each a pair of moccasins that he made for you." My father gave Poloma, Nita and I a pair. They were brand new! We told him Thank You! and then he sent us to write our journal of the day. I have had a fun day and tomorrow I will get to wear my brand new moccasins which will be nice. 

Sincerely,

Fala

 

Diary Entry Of 10 Year Old Choctaw Child Day 2

Diary Entry 2

Dearest Diary,

Today I had a great time in the ceremony. In the morning, Poloma, Nita, and I had to get up earlier then usual and pick crops. It was a cloudy day. I had hoped that it wouldn't rain in the ceremony when we were having fun. Nita and I were suppose to collect the beans, corn, and squash. Poloma was supposed to collect berries. When all of us had a pot full of the things we were supposed to collect, we gave them to my mother and she gave us cornmeal. We ate it and then counted the utensils. We made sure there would be plenty for the whole tribe. Then we went to the ceremony. The first thing we did was we went to the chief's wife and congratulated her for having her baby. Her name is Talulah and it means leaping in water. We gave Talulah a pot that we made out of clay for a gift. Then we said "Hi" to the chief. Soon everyone started eating. I ate some of my mother's stew, cornbread, cornmeal, and some fish that someone caught. I drank hickory milk. Then we started to dance. We danced to some music that Choctaw were singing and drumming. It was a lot of fun. After a few more dances we played stickball. I was having so much fun but then it started raining and so everyone had to go home. I was sad that we couldn't stay and keep celebrating but I knew that we couldn't play Stickball in the rain. We said "Bye" to everyone and then left. When we got home my mother gave us our dinner. It was soup and cornbread with water. After dinner we didn't have time to play a game together so Poloma, Nita, and I wrote in our diaries. Now it is time for me to go to bed. I had a great time at the ceremony.

Goodnight Diary,

Fala

Recipe For Cornbread That The Choctaw Tribe Ate

Cornbread:
1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
3/4 cup of white flour
3/4 cup of polenta or cornmeal
4 tablespoons of sugar
5 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons of applesauce
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of water
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in another bowl. Add wet ingredients and dry ingredients in another bowl together and stir well. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes or until it is golden brown.



This photo is from Queen Roly. Thank you!   

Diary Entry Of 10 Year Old Choctaw Child Day 1

   Diary Entry 1

Dearest Diary,

My name is Fala. It is a Choctaw name and it means crow. I have two sisters, a mother, and a father. My sisters names are Poloma and Nita. Poloma means bow and Nita means bear. I am ten years old, Poloma is fourteen years old, and Nita is eight years old. My mother's name is Isi. It means deer. My father's name is Shikoba. It means feather in Choctaw.     Today was a good day. In the morning, right after I woke up, I went outside. It was windy. I had to pick some crops. I picked squash, corn, and beans. Then my mother gave me, Poloma, Nita, and my father  some cornmeal. When we were all done eating, my father took his bow and arrows, got on his horse, and left to hunt meat for our family to eat for dinner. My mother got her pots that she made out of clay and she started making stews with the crops that I collected before we ate so we could have them in a stew for lunch. Poloma and I helped my mother make food by making cornbread and Nita collected more crops for tomorrow. Tomorrow there would be a big ceremony because the chief's wife had a baby very recently. Everyone in the Choctaw tribe needed to bring some food. Our family was going to bring a stew and enough utensils for every one to eat with. That would mean that tomorrow we were going to have to make stew and my father would have to hunt a buffalo or find shells because my family doesn't have enough utensils for everyone to use so we would have to make some more. Soon Nita came in with a lot of crops and Poloma and I finished the cornbread. Since we were done with our chores for now, we got to play. The three of us played a game. Our game got interrupted when my father came and shouted "I caught a buffalo!" Then we had to go and see. The buffalo was huge! My father took the horns off the buffalo and my mother told us to get ready for lunch. Then she gave us stew with beans, squash, corn, and turkey. It was really good. Then Poloma, Nita, and I went to play with our beaded dolls. After awhile it was time for dinner. We went over to my mother and she gave us more stew and cornbread. She also gave us hickory milk. After dinner our family played a game together and we had to write in our journals. I have to go to bed now because tomorrow we will have our ceremony. We will need to wake up earlier then usual because we will need to prepare for the ceremony.

Sincerely,

Fala

Choctaw Entertainment and Interesting Facts

Entertainment

The Choctaw tribe had ceremonies. In the ceremonies they would eat and dance. The most important dance was the Sun Dance. That is because they believed in the sun. Every year they had festivals in Oklahoma. They were in the tribes capital. There, people can learn about the Choctaw culture. Also they played instruments. They made the instruments out of natural things and played them.

Interesting Facts

Andrew Jackson became the president of the United States. He was willing to use force to remove the Choctaw tribe. They were forced to travel to Oklahoma. They were to move in three groups starting in 1831. There was bad weather on the journey. Some died because they weren't prepared for the journey. They died on the infamous Trail Of Tears. There are still two Choctaw tribes today. Choctaw lived in cabins. The cabins were made by driving poles close together in the Earth. Native Americans in the Choctaw tribe wore moccasins on their feet. Today, some rock climbers wear moccasins when they are climbing because they help to grip the rocks better. Moccasins that people wear today came from the Native Americans.

                                                      
                                                                                                                         
This photo is from Jos van Wunnik Thank you!                                         This is from Jondresner. Thank you!

Choctaw Culture And Religion

Religions

The Choctaw believed in an evil spirit and a good spirit. They believed in the sun. The sun was known to have the power of life and death. The life was the good spirit and the death was the evil spirit. The sun was so important to them that they even had a Sun Dance that they danced in ceremonies.  They were sun worshippers. They also had a symbol. Their symbol was a seal. It had a circle within which was a set of bow and arrows. There was a set of bow and arrows because the Native Americans used bow and arrows to shoot the meat that they hunted. The Choctaw tribe believed that they and other tribes emerged from the Earth and that that was how their tribe started.

Culture

There were many games that they played. The most important games were Stickball and Ishtaboli. Whole villages played against each other.Women usually didn't play but they encouraged their team. If they thought men weren't working hard enough when playing a game, they would whack the men with a stick. The Choctaw tribe danced different dances. Women did all the cooking and men did the hunting. The men rode horses and carried a set of bow and arrows. They shot animals that they saw. Everyone, even kids, had to do chores. When they weren't doing chores, children played. Sometimes they played games and sometimes they played with beaded dolls. Eating utensils were made out of wood, shells, or bison horns.

                      
                                                                                             This photo is from Travis S. Thank you!

Choctaw Food And Climate

Food

The Choctaw tribe ate different types of bread. To drink they had hickory milk and water. In hunting season they had fresh meat such as wild turkey, bear, and fish from rivers. Choctaws were kind of like farmers and gatherers because they planted crops and then gathered them when they were big enough to be eaten. Some of the crops were corn, beans, and squash. They also had pumpkins, eggs, and salt. With some of the food such as squash, corn, beans, pumpkin, and turkey, they made soups and stews. Whenever they cooked, they would cook in pots. They made cornmeal and cornbread from the corn that they gathered. A lot of the time gathering the crops was a job for the children to do because the men had to hunt and the women had to cook.

Climate

The Choctaw tribe had a marshy land. It also rained so much. In the Winter it was cold and in the Summer it was hot. It was also sometimes humid in the Summer. It rained a lot. Some Native Americans had to stay inside their cabins to stay dry because of how much it rained. The Choctaw tribe may have liked the rain because it helped the crops that they were growing grow faster and that helped them get more food. It was cloudy and windy sometimes. Sometimes it was sunny and when it was sunny it was usually in the Summer.

                         

       

These are Emily Barney's photos. Thank you!           This is Fabio Manini's photo. Thank you!

Legend Of Why It Rains By Sophia Preys

Many years ago there were many living creatures in the sky. They were called sky clouds. Most of the time they didn't quarrel. For entertainment the sky clouds would have ceremonies. At the ceremonies, they would dance and eat. The food they ate was stews and soups with corn, beans, squash, and wild turkey in them. They would also have cornbread with the soups and stews. The stews and soups were cooked in pots. Up in the sky where the sky clouds lived it was mostly windy. Sometimes it was cloudy because other sky clouds lived above them. They always did chores. Even the little kid sky clouds. When the little sky clouds weren't doing chores, they would play with beaded dolls or they would games. The most important game was Stick-ball. Whole villages would play against each other. That was a part of their culture. They also had strong beliefs about the sun. They believed in a good spirit and and evil spirit. That is because the sun was known for the power of life and death. The good spirit that the sky clouds believed in was the life and the evil spirit was the death. The sky clouds had a chief who took care of all the sky clouds. The chief's daughter also took care of the sky clouds. The chief was called Chief Skyline and his daughter was called Clouding. Chief Skyline had a grayish body and wore a gray puffy robe. He had white, silky hair and black shoes. Clouding had very straight and gray hair and most of the time she wore it in a bun. She too wore a gray and puffy robe and black shoes. She also had gray diamond earrings and whenever anyone on the ground had a quarrel, her earrings would light up yellow. Whenever any sky clouds had quarrels, Clouding's earrings would light up dark red. Then they would blink thirteen times and the chief and his daughter would slowly start to disappear. The only way for the sky clouds to stop the chief and his daughter from disappearing would be to stop quarreling within one minute. Then the chief and his daughter would turn their normal gray color and Clouding's earrings would stop glowing. But if the sky clouds did not stop quarreling, their chief and his daughter would disappear forever. The sky clouds had quarreled twice before and they had stopped within 39 seconds. 
      One day a sky cloud came to live with the other sky clouds. Chief Skyline and Clouding decided to call him Skyscraper. They thought that when he was older he would be a very smart sky cloud. But they were wrong. When he grew older, he was mean to other sky clouds and tried to start quarrels. Chief Skyline and Clouding had told him about how they disappear if sky clouds quarreled but he didn't seem to care about the chief or the chief's daughter. He liked to make others mad. The sky clouds that he teased didn't say anything to Skyscraper when he was mean. They just ignored him so Chief Skyline and Clouding wouldn't fade away forever. Skyscraper tried so hard to make the chief and his daughter disappear. He tried to think of the meanest thing to say to a sky cloud but all he could think of were things that weren't that mean. Finally he thought of something really mean to say. He said it to Clouted, a pretty sky cloud who usually just ignored Skyscraper. This time she was so mad that she screamed. Then Skyscraper shouted and shouted. Clouding's earrings started glowing dark red. Chief Skyline shouted "30 seconds of quarreling. Stop!". Skyscraper didn't stop and he slapped a sky cloud named Sky on his head. Sky ignored Skyscraper. There were 5 seconds left until Chief Skyline and Clouding disappeared forever. They were slowly fading and all the sky clouds were screaming and quarreling. Then the time was up. Suddenly, Chief Skyline and Clouding were gone. Everyone was very sad. They stopped screaming and quarreling. Then Skyscraper had a guilty feeling. He felt very sorry for himself. It was all his fault that the chief and the chief's daughter were gone and every single sky cloud knew that. 
               All of the sky clouds were crying a lot and wouldn't stop. They cried so much that their tears went through the cloud that the sky clouds lived on. The tears fell under the clouds and to the ground. The tears made tear stains on the ground. People who lived on the ground stared out the window. Then they all stepped outside. "Let's call this rain!" some shouted. People tilted their heads backward and stuck their tongues out. "It's delicious water!" they said. Up in the clouds the sky clouds stopped crying and the people on the ground went back inside their houses. Now whenever anyone in the sky or on the ground have quarrels, it rains. Sometimes there is what people call thunder when Skyscraper is with the rest of the sky clouds. Even though he doesn't start quarrels anymore because he realized how bad it is, sky clouds still think he is bad. When there is lightning, Chief Skyline and Clouding are in the air and whispering to the sky clouds "Don't feel sad. We are happy in heaven." The flashing lights are Clouding's earrings that always flash from now on and never ever stop. If it is ever raining, you will know that someone in the world had a quarrel.

       

This photo is from Moyan_ Brenn