basic Ohio style mocs(Wyandot/Shawnee/Delaware)

[richardzane]

Kweh Omateru'
(heya friends,)
just returned from two weeks at the Smithsonian collections in DC photographing Wendat and Wyandot artifacts
and archives photographing language material. I have some GREAT photos of early moccasins, but I'm reluctant about putting them online
because of heavy copyright restrictions on OUR OWN THINGS! Seems we get damned anyway the chips fall. I'd like to just let a couple slip
though because they are outstanding examples....but i don't know...

[Olanigw (Pekane)]

Kweh Omateru'
(heya friends,)
just returned from two weeks at the Smithsonian collections in DC photographing Wendat and Wyandot artifacts
and archives photographing language material. I have some GREAT photos of early moccasins, but I'm reluctant about putting them online
because of heavy copyright restrictions on OUR OWN THINGS! Seems we get damned anyway the chips fall. I'd like to just let a couple slip
though because they are outstanding examples....but i don't know...

Kwai kwai nid8ba! Magada Ta8lawikh8zal!  (hello friend.  Give the pictures!)
K'kik8 Bostoniak? (Will the Americans curse you?)

Ni nakihl8baiwi Kd'idam? (Also, do you speak the language of the people-to-the-west/ wendot?)

[richardzane]

kweh he'eye'an,

yamęnda ⁿde wandat skandare', nęh  ǫndaeˀ yarihǫⁿgyaˀ  ayaéh, nęhša  tiyarehutineˀ  ⁿde  Kǫmahskwemaˀa.

(the words of the wyandot live on and the reason is its waking up,  and also the ceremonial lifeways as our Green Corn.)

it hasn't been common conversational for almost 100 years,but we have alot of material and of course all the sister languages(wendat(huron) and iroquoian)
how about yourself? whats your own nation?

[Olanigw (Pekane)]

Bah!  I'm not yet fluent enough in Abenaki to work "yamenda" back to proto-algonquin.  Inglismaniwi?  English?

[richardzane]

 
"yamęnda" is Wyandot for "words"--- the Wendat use "yawenda"

allright
I'm going to let these wyandot moccasins slide in here...not everyone has a chance to hang out two weeks at the National Museum of the American Indian as i did.
BUT If you share these pics ,please make sure to put on each pic. NMAI.CRC  (Nation Museum of the American Indian . Cultural Resources Collection)
if you publish? well you need to get permission from the NMAI.
As far as i'm concerned these are things that belong to the Wyandot people , cultural items.
those who i've talked with who seem to know their stuff say these are likely very early 1800s or late 1700s.
this is the same pucker toe technique i use on mine, but center seams are entirely covered with quill work, loomed quill work, and silk cloth with beads.
Richard (Sǫhahiyǫh)

[richardzane]

Kweh Pekane,
forgot to mention that ours(wyandot and wendat)  is an Iroquoian language.
I've heard it said by linguists that Algonquin and Iroquoian languages are as different as Chinese Mandarin and English!
we kept ourt languages and identity even though we were all neighbors and traded constantly.
today , seems everyones unique individuality and identity is getting lost into the flow of panNDNism.

[Olanigw (Pekane)]

Thanks for the pics!

And that would certainly explain my difficulty.

I am Western Abenaki.  we call ourselves Aln8bak.  No federal recognition in the States but meh, we know who we are and so do Vermonters.  I am working on learning the language so my children can grow up fluent.  Fortunately there are still one or two elders who are fully fluent and they are working hard to revive the language to keep it alive with the help of a linguistics genius that is pouring his soul into the effort and creating teaching materials that facilitate internalizing it.  Cutting edge stuff.

This past generation has seen an explosion in interest in the culture and history, as grandmothers and fathers opened up about their childhood and their grandparents.  In many ways we are still a very much fractured people, since every family made the decision to live as a "gypsy" or "river rat" in their homeland, assimilate to avoid death and persecution, or emigrate to the reservation at Odenak in Quebec over the years as the European population grew and, more recently, the eugenic movement in the 30's.

Yup.  People like to lump everything together by skin color(and even that varies by Nation in the extreme...) "You speak Indian? (i speak Western Abenaki, and badly.) / You are an Indian? (yes I am)/ You don't look Indian...(You're right, I don't have a strong sioux nose like that guy in Dances with Wolves)/ So Tipis, right?"  >_<

It's an uphill battle... 

[Mike_H]

Pekane, part of the issue, I think at least, is that so little of the general public knows even the basics of the eastern tribes.  More people know of the plains, southwest and pacific northwest tribes.  It's sad really.

[richardzane]

kweh Pekane,
good hearing about you Al8bak folks, and you are fortunate to have speakers.
The main reason i was in DC was I was invited to attend the "Breath of Life" sponsored by the Smithsonian whish specializes in reclaiming threatened indigenous languages. In my team, there were four of us representing the Wendat and Wyandot Every native group that came, from California tribes to Massachusets and Virginia tribes are in the same predicament...even those who have elder speakers are losing them every year.
It was great hanging out for two weeks and sharing languages and each others dances and songs too. 2 weeks in the city was the pits though.

Mike_H
you're right, there's so much american ignorance about this continents aboriginal people groups . It even feels deliberate at times...
There have always been attempts at reducing all natives to a one size fits all NDN... happened first at the boarding schools,taking 1000s of kids from hundreds of very different native communities and reducing them all to a one size fits all NDN kid with cut hair and uniforms.

[BowEd]

Interesting richard.Nice pictures.I'm sure you enjoyed yourself on your trip.I don't speak any kind of indian but like a lot of their philosophys towards life.The way I understand history is the Sioux actually were an eastern indian tribe long ago and moved west fighting and conquering other tribes territory as they went.In Iowa here we had the Osage & Iowa indians I think.
When I was at cape cod back in 2007 I went to a meeting where the speaker was a native indian from that area.Very interesting.

[richardzane]

kweh Beadman,
yeah the Lakota,Dakota,Nakota were living around Lake Superior in the mid 16oos. I know because my ancestors who had been dispersed from Ontario , fought them
 ...over a woman as the story goes...and since they couldn't come to an agreement we (Wyandot) migrated towards Detroit area...then Ohio.
Lakota's own horse culture is actually fairly recent in the light of MANY 1000s of years of life here.

[nclonghunter]

Richardzane, thank you for posting those pictures. They are awesome and fascinating. I have made many center seam Creek style (woodland) design moccasins. I have never attempted the detail those have. It would be great to meet the person who sewed all of it together. The knowledge that has been lost is terrible.
I recently took my wife to DC for a test and insisted we visit the Native American Museum. It is a beautiful building and design. We even had some buffalo, rice and sunflower root in the cafeteria. I had hoped to see more eastern material than was there. I visited the Smithsonian when I was 12 years old and remember seeing a lot more native American artifacts. I expected all of it to be in the new museum but did not see it. I was a little disappointed in what was there. After leaving and thinking about all the cultures and areas that are represented there is actually little room given to each. It would take 20 buildings that size to just do a decent showing of each tribe or cultural period. So I understand why only a little can be shared as you go from floor to floor traveling around the world. We also watched a movie in a room that showed mother earth at the bottom, the land in the middle and the sky above. It was really enjoyable and educating. The entire museum is interesting and worth the trip to see it. I would have loved to have gotten the tour you did, but again I understand and appreciate you sharing the photos.

[richardzane]

thanks nclonghunter,
you are right the displays are a little slim...disapointing
the main collections of the Smithsonian are in storage and are vast! I saw shelves and shelves of Bows and hundreds of arrows on trays.
If you ever get a chance ,you can schedule a visit to the Cultural Resource Center and see some amazing things.

ok...I've been holding back on the Wendat stuff..ok
again....if anyone passes these pics around give credit to the collection where its housed.
NMAI.CRC.Washington DC

[IsaacW]

very nice, very traditional, I think a build along is in order?

I use a similar method and here is how I do it.

http://frenchinwisconsin.com/2011/05/makazinan-moccasins/

 Since doing this how to--- I have gotten better but the process is the same.

[YosemiteBen]

Richard and Pekane -

Thanks for the language lessons. In the museum I get that question all the time - "Do you speak your own language?" then I get to tell the stories of our peoples and the tragedy of boarding schools. In my family I had three out of four grandparent who were all schooled. Didn't have much opportunity to learn tribal stuff till I got older. I am Maidu on my dads side and Annishnabe on my moms side. All together I am about 75% NDN by "quantum", such an ugly word. We work to use words for family members and such in our house. My wife is born Tsa la gi and raised Miwok.

NDN history has for a very long time been only a very small part of "American" history. There are new history books written by the "conquered" that are showing up - got to do a little digging to find them.

We are not dead, We are still alive - We are still Here!