There is a lot of interesting information out there on Native American culture, for instance a site about the Haudenosaunee Indians (or Iroquois) in Victor, New York just southeast of Rochester, http://www.gagondagon.org/. 

The Haudenosaunee are currently working on the Iroquois White Corn Project, which is an effort to restore the farming, consumption and distribution of a traditional, nutritious, low glycemic index Iroquois white corn, used widely by the Haudenosaunee for at least 2,000 years.  It was grown in abundance by the 17^th Century Ganondagan until thousands of bushels of it, the food that sustained the 4,500 people living there, was burnt by the French in 1687. (Haudenosaunee Indian Fact Sheet, 1998-2014) 

Frenchman Marquis de Denonville, in the course of military expeditions against the Haudenoshaunee in 1687 reported that his forces destroyed more than 400,000 minots of corn.  A French minot, according to Lewis Henry Morgan, equals roughly three bushels, so the 400,000 minots of corn that Denonville’s forces destroyed in 1687 equaled roughly 1.2 million bushels.  While Denonville’s estimate may have been inflated to please his superior’s, even half that amount would be a very large cache and devastating to the Haudenoshaunee. (Johnson & Mann, 2000)

The Haudenoshaunee ability to produce a surplus of corn played a role in the political influence of the confederacy (or alliance of 6 Native American Nations) which reached, through a chain of alliances, from their homelands in present day upstate New York across much of New England and the Middle Atlantic Regions. (Johnson & Mann, 2000)

The original vision of the White Corn Project was to bring the corn back to a prominent place at the center of Haudenosaunee culture, diet and community.  They will plant, process and sell white corn in an effort to rebuild on their legacy. (Ganondagan, n.d.)

For those interested in learning more about this the link between traditional white corn and the Haudenoshaunee (Iroquois) Creation Story will be the focus of the “Corn and Haudenoshaunee Creation” workshops on Tuesday, March 18 from 6:30-8 PM  at the friends of Gagondagans Iroquois White Corn Project at 7191 Country Road 41 at School Street in Victor, NY.

Tell me and I’ll forget

Show me and I may not remember

Involve me and I’ll understand

(Native American Proverb)

This week I reviewed the website http://www.42explore2.com/native3.htm.   According to information found on the site, developers Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson created the site in 1999 in an effort to give teachers and students a site they can go to and find multiple sources of information regarding many different topics all in one place.  The idea is that there are at least four links to each topic and sometimes more in case one or more of them are not working.

The top five sites that    4 2 explore offers links to are yahoo.com, ancestry.com, meetup.com, vista.ir and squidoo.com.  (Johnson, 1999)

The site itself is geared toward teachers and students for K-12 and could definitely be used to either teach an informative class, or from the student’s perspective, write a good quality research paper.  

I took a closer look at the biography links provided regarding Chief Joseph of the Nez Pierce.  I have done a small amount of research in the past on Chief Joseph and the information I received from the link on

4 2 explore is some that I didn’t know before.  I learned that Chief Joseph actually converted to Christianity and was an active supporter of the long standing peace with whites before gold was discovered and the government took back almost 6 million acres of land and restricted the Nez Pierce to the reservation in Idaho.  (New Perspectives on The West, 2001)  Chief Joseph actually denounced the US and destroyed the US Flag and his bible and refused to move his band and sign the treaty with the US Government that would make the new boundaries of the reservation official.  I knew that Chief Joseph and his people were relocated to a reservation in Washington where he died of, according to the physician on the reservation, a broken heart. (Powerful People, n.d.)

There is quite a bit more to learn about Chief Joseph via 4 2 explore and I’d definitely recommend at least reviewing the site and seeing what is available on topics such as Native Americans.

Hello

Hello classmates, this is my test to see if I actually figured out how to do this.  I hope it worked and here goes nothing.  I look forward to learning alongside of all of you this semester, best wishes to all!!