Mrs. Ludwig brought a talking-stick to class.
Indians used these at their meetings.
The person with the talking-stick was the only one who could talk.
The Native Americans thought everything was a web. No one owned anything. Everything had a place on the web. They believed all living things including humans were part of this intricate web. The Native Americans had respect for nature. Native Americans believed in an ultimate Creator who was called names like "Great Spirit", "Giver of Breath" or simply "Grandmother".
The Europeans weren't nice to the Native Americans. They felt that the land belonged to them. They believed that they could rule the Native Americans. They were nice only a tiny bit. The Europeans cut down trees so they could have farms and own the land. They viewed America as a wild kingdom full of overgrown plant life and dangerous amimals and savage Indians. The Indians were sad of how the immigrants took the land and treated them poorly.
The Native Americans depended on the earth for survival. They never believed they owned it. They believed all living things were linked together, just like a web. They said that rocks, water and sun also were in the special web. No living thing or object was better than another living thing. The air, water and land was free. Everything was shared, not owned. The Indians always believed that all living things were equal.
The Europeans looked at the land very differently from the Native Americans. They called the Indians, "savage" Indians.
At first the Pilgrims were thankful for the Indians help, but then they got settled and moved more and more into the Indian's territory. The Pilgrims took over the Wampanoag's land after they had helped them get through tough years. They accused the Wampanoags of tresspassing on their own land. They needed the Indians less and less.
The Indians did not like the way the Europeans lived and forced them to live. For example, the Europeans forced the Indians to change their religion.
Mrs. Ludwig brought a talking-stick to class.
Indians used these at their meetings.
The person with the talking-stick was the only one who could talk.
We drank pine-needle tea from quahog shells,
and decided what we would need in order to live before the colonists arrived.
Our school is on Massachusetts Avenue which was an Indian path connecting Concord to Boston.
The Indians did not live in Lexington,
but they did hunt and walk through our town,
down Wood Street and along Massachusetts Avenue.
By John Fandel,
Illustrated by Sarah
Margaret mentioned Indians,
And I began to think about Indians -
Indians once living
Where now we are living -
And I thought how little I know
About Indians. Oh, I know
What I have heard. Not much
When I think how much
I wonder about them,
When a mere mention of them,
Indians, starts me. I
Think of their wigwams. I
Think of canoes. I think
Of quick arrows. I think
Of things Indian. and still
I think of their bright, still
Summers, when these hills
And meadows on these hills
Shone in the morning
Suns before this morning.