Name______
(Taken from the site http://www.rickriordan.com/politics.htm)
Iroquois Food
Read the paragraphs and then answer the questions that follow.(Key words are underlined)
To the Iroquois people, corn, beans, and squash are the Three Sisters, the physical and spiritual sustainers of life. The three vegetables composed the main food supply of the Iroquois. These life-supporting plants were given to the people when all three miraculously sprouted from the body of Sky Woman's daughter, granting the gift of agriculture to the Iroquois.
The Iroquois agricultural system was based on the hill-planting method. Iroquois women, who were responsible for farming, placed several kernels of corn in a hole. As the small seedlings began to grow, the farmers returned periodically to mound the soil around the young plants, ultimately creating a hill one foot high and two feet wide. The hills were arranged in rows about one step apart.
1. What are the “three sisters” and why are they important? ______
2. Who was responsible for the farming in an Iroquois community? ______
For centuries, corn was the staple grain of the Americas, and it has sustained generations of Iroquois people. Iroquois women raised several colors and varieties of corn, including flint, flour, pod, pop, and sweet.
Every part of the ear of corn was used. Women braided the husks for rope and twine and coiled them into containers and mats. Shredded husks made good kindling and filling for pillows and mattresses. The corncobs served as bottle stoppers, scrubbing brushes, and fuel for smoking meat. Corn silk made hair for cornhusk dolls.
3. List at least three Iroquois uses for the non-edible parts of the corn plant.
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The Iroquois recognized the importance of the animals with which they shared the forest. They depended on animals for survival and patterned their society on the structure of Nature.
Iroquois men spent much of their time and energy protecting their village and territory, trading for goods, and hunting and fishing. Their most important quarry was the deer, and they needed to shoot one a week to provide sufficient meat for their families.
4. What did Iroquois men hunt most for food?
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Hunting was the major contribution Iroquois men made to their families' subsistence. In addition to deer, hunters also stalked the black bear, and, in spring, the passenger pigeon.
Fish were an integral part of the Iroquois diet. The abundant waterways provided white and yellow bass, walleye, shovelnose sturgeon, and brook trout, among other species.
The Cornplanter band of Seneca held great annual fish drives. First, men built a V-shaped fence, or weir, across the river. They forced the fish into the weir with a giant rake, which was pulled toward the weir by horses on opposite shores. Waiting fishermen speared the trapped fish.
5. How did a “fish drive” work? (There are three steps.) ______
6. What tasty food did Iroquois love to hunt in the spring? ______
Click on the underlined word to go to a website. Read the information and then answer the questions.
7. What purpose does it serve to paint your bow? ______
8. Look at a picture and read the paragraph . Why are the pots round on the bottom? ______
9. When do the Iroquois gather cherries and what are they used for? ______
10. How would an Iroquois make a hoe (farming implement)? ______
(Click on The Three Sisters)
Use the information from the previous questions to answer the essential questions listed below. You can also click on the picture to visit a website for more information.
What is your artifact?
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What is your artifact used for or how is it used?
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Why was your topic important in Iroquois culture?
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What symbol could we use today to stand for food? ______
How does the topic (artifact) relate to our lives today? (Think of what the artifact represents. How is this important to us today?)
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