Ronan students exposed to Native American culture
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ELMO — Ronan fifth graders gained insight into Kootenai Indian culture last week at Ronan School District’s Native American Culture Day and had some fun, too.
A full day of activities at the Elmo Culture Center included a drumming and singing group. Allan Hewankorn provided a drum and drumsticks for the students and taught them a basic rhythm. Then they played a paying-attention game.
Kids learned about tulle tepees, a cool summer-time tepee, cradleboards from Cathy Hamel and fish traps fashioned from limber willow branches. Albert Caye taught the students some Kootenai words, such as animals and colors.
After lunch of soup and frybread, kids played double ball and shinny, traditional Native American games. The games helped run off some steam so they were better able to concentrate on afternoon activities. Fire starting using a bow drill was taught by Owen Amos, Clark Patton and Armand Schneider from Past Skills in Boulder Colo. After sparks lit up a puff of jute fibers, the kids and instructors trooped outside to coax the ember into full-fledged flame.
“All the kids are intrigued,” Schneider said since they always are cautioned not to play with fire.
Bill McConnell, head of Past Skills, showed kids arrowheads and explained flint knapping. Passing around a selection of arrowheads, McConnell said most of them had been found in Montana.
He explained that long ago the arrowheads would have been used to bring down deer or elk for food. Kootenai dry meat-makers Alvina and Bernadine Tenas demonstrated how to cut meat under Louise Andrew’s “supervision.” Philip Kallowat explained that earlier generations didn’t have refrigerators or freezers to keep meat cold so tribal members dried meat to preserve it.
Students helped the Tenases and Andrew pound the meat and season it before it went outside to be dried.
Over a cottonwood fire, Douglas Caye was drying the meat. Cottonwood or alder woods, Caye explained, doesn’t have a taste to them. If pine is used to dry meat, the meat tastes like pitch.
After the meat was dried, each student got to sample his or her work.
Bryant Hales said he liked the dry meat station “cause I like eating.”
Among a group of hungry fifth graders, Dylan Moran agreed, munching on a bone.
Another popular food station was fry bread. Kids each got a piece of dough and under Naida Lefthand and Brittany Hewankorn’s tutelage patted and stretched it into a piece of frybread. After frying the dough, kids snacked on frybread with butter and honey or ate it plain.
It’s a fun day for Ronan students, but according to Leslie Caye, Ronan’s Indian Education Coordinator, the event also gives elementary kids a knowledge base about Kootenai culture.
