Tell me a story?

Native American record keeping.

Many native tribes had many way of communicating and teaching their past.

This blog only writes about what is known about the Eastern Woodland American Natives, my people.

My people, the Pequot/Mohegan people used sign language, storytelling and pictures to help keep their ancestors alive in the minds and hearts of the people.

The use of signing was a challenge in the form of a living movie because each person would stand and teach a story taught to him or her of long ago, the children needed to pay close attention because they would be asked to take their turns.

A shame is that this art form is slowly being lost with this generation.

The elders would speak of times, standing between the fire and a wall, signing a story so that their shadow would reflect onto the wall as an attention getter of the very young, the idea was to make the story fun, interesting and at times ever scary.

Speaking, or storytelling, was also a good way of keeping the young minds remindful of their past and the ancestors, this was the way that I was taught by my grandfather and my elders.

Our women spent many hours making different size baskets for carrying food, wash, regalia making tools and even baby's around while working.

Each women would make picture stories on their baskets for ways of teaching the young while planting, washing, picking and cooking the food.