Native American History for Kids - Holidays and Festivals
Native Americans celebrate festivals and holidays as diverse as their culture. Here are just a few of the celebrations.
For Kids
The Pow-Wow - A pow-wow is a time of celebration. It's a social gathering of Native Americans from many tribes, and a time to remember customs and traditions. Anyone can attend a pow-wow, but only a real Native American can join in the activities or wear the colorful costumes of their tribes. In Arizona, for example, people from twenty different great Indian tribes - Apache, Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, and others - gather together once a year in Flagstaff, Arizona for one huge Pow-Wow celebration. There are parades and rodeos, war-dances and snake dances, and games of skill.
The Potlatch - A Potlatch is not just a party. A Potlatch is a magnificent and planned party. It's a really big deal. Planning for a potlatch might take an entire year, or even longer! Today, as in olden times, each person invited to a potlatch receives a present. This present can be as simple as a pencil or as complicated as a carving. At any particular potlatch, everyone receives the same present.
The Green Corn Festival - This celebration was help by many different tribes of Indians in one form or another. These early people were very grateful for their harvests. Tribes held several festivals each year to say prayers of thanks to their gods. One of the most important was the Green Corn Festival. This festival was held in late summer or early fall, when the corn they had planted had ripened on the stalk. The expression "green corn" refers to ripened sweet corn, corn you could eat.
Snow Snake Games - The Snow Snake Games were played in the winter, after the men returned from the annual hunt. These were huge games. Village played village. People shouted for their team. It was an exciting game of skill to the Iroquois people, and a team sport.
The Many Ceremonies of the People of the Plateau - As the most important religious leader in a village, the Shaman led religious ceremonies throughout the year. Two very important ceremonies were seasonal. One ceremony thanked the spirits for allowing the tribe to complete preparation for the coming winter. Another ceremony thanked the spirits for bringing spring. All ceremonies involved a lot of dancing and singing, accompanied by bird-bone flutes and deer hoof rattles, banging sticks and beating hide covered wooden drums. Ceremonies were noisy. The tribe wanted to make sure the spirits would hear their thanks and prayers.
Native Americans for Kids
Native Americans in US, Canada, and the Far North
Early people of North America (during the ice age 40,000 years ago)
Northeast Woodland Tribes and Nations - The Northeast Woodlands include all five great lakes as well as the Finger Lakes and the Saint Lawrence River. Come explore the 3 sisters, longhouses, village life, the League of Nations, sacred trees, snowsnake games, wampum, the arrowmaker, dream catchers, night messages, the game of sep and more. Special Sections: Iroquois Nation, Ojibwa/Chippewa, The Lenape Indians. Read two myths: Wise Owl and The Invisible Warrior.
Southeast Woodland Tribes and Nations - The Indians of the Southeast were considered members of the Woodland Indians. The people believed in many deities, and prayed in song and dance for guidance. Explore the darkening land, battle techniques, clans and marriage, law and order, and more. Travel the Trail of Tears. Meet the Muscogee (Creek), Chickasaw, Choctaw, Mississippians, Seminole Indians and Cherokee Indians.
Plains Indians - What was life like in what is now the Great Plains region of the United States? Some tribes wandered the plains in search of foods. Others settled down and grew crops. They spoke different languages. Why was the buffalo so important? What different did horses make? What was coup counting? Who was Clever Coyote? Meet the Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Comanche, Pawnee, and Sioux Nation.
Southwest Indians - Pueblo is not the name of a tribe. It is a Spanish word for village. The Pueblo People are the decedents of the Anasazi People. The Navajo and the Apache arrived in the southwest in the 1300s. They both raided the peaceful Pueblo tribes for food and other goods. Who were the Devil Dancers? Why are blue stones important? What is a wickiup? Who was Child of Water?
Pacific Coastal Northwest Indians - What made some of the Pacific Northwest Indian tribes "rich" in ancient times? Why were woven mats so important? How did totem poles get started? What was life like in the longhouse? What were money blankets and coppers? How did the fur trade work? How did Raven Steal Crow's Potlatch?
Inland Plateau People - About 10,000 years ago, different tribes of Indians settled in the Northwest Inland Plateau region of the United States and Canada, located between two huge mountain ranges - the Rockies and the Cascades. The Plateau stretches from BC British Columbia all the way down to nearly Texas. Each village was independent, and each had a democratic system of government. They were deeply religious and believed spirits could be found everything - in both living and non-living things. Meet the Nez Perce
California Indians - The Far West was a land of great diversity. Death Valley and Mount Whitney are the highest and lowest points in the United States. They are within sight of each other. Tribes living in what would become California were as different as their landscape.
Native Americans of the Far North: What trick did the Kutchin people use to catch their enemies? How did these early people stop ghosts from entering their homes? Why was the shaman so powerful? What is a finger mask? Play games! See and hear an old Inuit myth! Enter the mystical world of the people who lived in the far north in olden times. Algonquian/Cree, Athapascan/Kutchin, Central Canada, Inuit, The Shaman
Comparison Chart (Europeans & Indians)