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The Use of a Tool Tradition of the American Indian

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The Use of a Tool Tradition of the American Indian

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The Nakota American Indian used tools and oral traditions to pass down tribal histories from generation to generation. One tool called the winter count is a series of pictographs drawn on buffalo hide, cloth or paper that was used to remember a specific event for the year that links to other accounts within the same year, such as births, marriages, good harvest, etc. Information courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian.

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Oral Tradition of African-American slaves

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Oral Tradition of African-American slaves

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The African tradition of telling of stories through song came with Africans as they traveled along the Middle Passage. As slaves, messages of freedom and escape were expressed through songs and gave them directions and landmarks to look out for along the escape route. Here's a clip of a spiritual called Roll Jordan, Roll that was featured in the motion picture 12 Years a Slave, the narrative about Solomon Northrup, a freed black man who was captured and brutally placed into slavery.

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12 Years a Slave 2013   Roll Jordan Roll

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Ancient Egyptians used pictures that represented words dating around 3,000 B.C.  This old form of writing was done on papyrus paper, tablets, and walls. Hieroglyphics were found in pyramids and tomes built for pharoahs and detailed their lives. Learn more about how to decode the pictures that represent hieroglyphics.

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Learn about how Egyptian writing works and what it all represents, plus find out how to spell your name in hieroglyphics - cool!

Facts about hieroglyphics

Although hieroglyphics are Egyptian, the word hieroglyphics is Greek. "Hiero" means "holy" and "glyphics" means "marks" or "writings" - so the word means " holy writings ". The Egyptians believed there was great power in a name. If someone's name was remembered then he or she would survive in the afterlife. That's why pharaohs' names were written in hieroglyphics in their tombs!

What do the pictures mean?

Most of the pictures can stand for the object they represent, but usually they stand for sounds. In Egyptian, the owl stands for the sound "m". The Egyptian symbol for a mouth can mean mouth but it's usually read as the sound "r". You can't exactly match our alphabet to hieroglyphics, because they are two very different languages, but historians have come up with a simplified translation of our letters and Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Hieroglyphics can be pictures of living creatures, objects used in daily life or symbols. Some are easy to identify, some confusing and some impossible! If you look at the alphabet chart, you can easily spot the foot, the hand, the lion and the owl, but why are there two different kinds of snakes?

From A to Sh, the hieroglyphic symbols are:

Why don't you use the hieroglyphic chart above to see if you can write your own name?

For more about the Ancient Egyptians and their hieroglyphics, check out this cool clip...

Photos: Getty Images UK

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Facts about hieroglyphics | National Geographic Kids

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Learn about how Egyptian writing works and what it all represents, plus find out how to spell your name in hieroglyphics - cool! Although hieroglyphics are Egyptian, the word hieroglyphics is Greek. "Hiero" means "holy" and "glyphics" means "marks" or "writings" - so the word means " holy writings ".

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Here's Elizabeth Avecedo performing a spoken word piece entitled Hair. Enjoy!

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Take a look at this website to explore the many cave paintings from early human beings. Start with one of the most famous discovery of cave paintings found by four kids in Lascaux, France moving on to Africa, Australia and Europe. Click on the YouTube videos to gain deeper knowledge about how early humans told the story of their existence and the animals they hunted.

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Did you know that no one knows when humans first began to draw and create art? Explorers, scientists, historians, and even kids have found prehistoric cave paintings that were created 30,000 BC! During that time, the early humans were nomads, who hunted and gathered their food, moving around to follow the animals they hunted. This period was called the Stone Age because their tools were made of stone, bone, or wood.

One of the most important examples of prehistoric cave paintings was actually discovered by 4 kids! In 1940, four boys were taking their dog for a walk in Lascaux, France. While they were talking, their dog ducked into a hole, that led to one of the many limestone caves of the area. The boys figured out a way to follow it underground, and when they lit a match to see better, they were shocked to discover that the walls and ceilings were covered in primitive animal paintings! When they came back the next day with their teacher, they explored the cave more. These caves have more than 600 paintings, and 1500 engravings, that were created more than 20,000 years ago!

The majority of the cave paintings are of moving animals, that lived during this time in that part of France: bison, deer, horses. At the time, tourists were allowed into the caves to admire and observe the early human art. Soon, the exposure to light, microorganisms from the visitors, and the air pollution began to fade and deteriorate the paintings.

Are you interested in teaching your kids about these prehistoric cave paintings done by early humans? I've gathered some children's books, a couple of awesome videos, and a list of prehistoric cave paintings from around the world in case you are lucky enough to be near one for a visit!

The First Drawing . What a gorgeously illustrated book to introduce kids to prehistoric life!! Reading the engaging text, my own kids were really thinking about what it would be like to live at the time of early humans. Super picture book for the early primary grades.

The Secret Cave: Discovering Lascaux . This is the true story of Jacques, Jojo, Simon, and Marcel, and their astonishing discovery of the decorated cave in Lascaux, France that had been sealed for 17,000 years. I really enjoyed examining the diagrams and maps with the kids. My kids were interested in how the (second) arrival of humans (and our microorganisms) were not affecting the preservation of the art.

In Kakadu National Park in Australia, you can admire outstanding examples of Aboriginal rock art at Ubirr, Nourlangie and Nanguluwur. Kakadu's rock art showcases one of the longest historical records of any group of people in the world, as aboriginal people have used the caves for shelters for over 20,000 years.

Matobo Hills National Park in Zimbabwe is a UNESCO site, notable for having one of the highest concentrations of early rock paintings in southern Africa. While the rock paintings date to 13,000 years, humans used the area as a shelter starting in the Stone Age, through early historical times.

In the Albarracín Cultural Park, in Teruel, Spain, visitors can see 26 early human rock-art sites. In this UNESCO World Heritage site, we find one of the greatest concentrations of post-Palaeolithic art in southwest Europe. Most scenes depict animals and people in the the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

The silhouettes of hands in the Cueva de las Manos, in rural Patagonia, Argentina, date from 13,000 to 9,000 years ago. Aside from the handprints stenciled from bone-made pipes used for spraying the paint on the wall of the cave, visitors can see hunting scenes, animals, zigzags, and geometric shapes at this UNESCO Heritage site.

In the Hopi language Palatki means 'red house'. The Palatki and Honanki Heritage Sites near Sedona, Arizona, US were the largest cliff dwellings the area between AD 1150 - 1350, built by the Sinagua people of the Ancient Pueblo Peoples. They also contain rock art (pictographs and petroglyphs) that predate the cliff dwellings! The more abstract pictograph symbols and drawings are 3,000 to 6,000 years old, and some of the petroglyphs, estimated to be 5,000 to 6,000 years old.
Art by early humans gives us an insight into their nomadic lifestyle, and shows a creative side to the primitive people.Have you ever visited a site with prehistoric cave paintings? Had you ever heard about the discovery of these cave paintings? Start with the books and videos here to give your kids a glimpse into early humans.

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Learn about and Visit Early Human Cave Paintings - Kid World Citizen

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Learn about early human cave paintings! These books, videos, and sites to visit give us a glimpse into the nomadic lifestyle of early humans.

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Have you thought about Spoken Word! Try this book out that examines a form of poetry expressed as Spoken Word called The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo.

Winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award!

Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.

With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

“Crackles with energy and snaps with authenticity and voice.” —Justina Ireland, author of Dread Nation

“An incredibly potent debut.” —Jason Reynolds, author of the National Book Award Finalist Ghost

“Acevedo has amplified the voices of girls en el barrio who are equal parts goddess, saint, warrior, and hero.” —Ibi Zoboi, author of American Street
Review courtesy of Amazon.com

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Cornrows by Camille Yarbrough
Every design has a name and means something in the powerful past and present richness of the Black tradition.

Mama’s and Great-Grammaw’s gentle fingers weave the design, and their lulling voices weave the tale, as they braid their children’s hair into the striking cornrow patterns of Africa.

Originally published: 1979

Author: Camille Yarbrough

Genre: Fiction

Illustrator: Carole Byard

Awards: Coretta Scott King Award for Illustrators

http://www.camilleyarbrough.com/nana-camille-yarbrough/

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A Boy Becomes a Man at Wounded Knee by Ted Wood and Wanbli Numpa Afraid of Hawk.
A young Lakota describes the commemorative journey marking the centennial of the massacre of his ancestors in December 1890. It's the fifth year that Native Americans and others still ``in pain from Wounded Knee'' have retraced the last 150 miles walked by Big Foot and his people. Now eight, Wanbli Numpa joins in the six-day ``Big Foot Memorial Ride.'' Though the killing rigors of the original journey are not fully reenacted—these travelers ride horses, campsites are set up by helpers in trucks, and Wanbli Numpa takes a needed day of rest midway—the grueling discomforts and dangers are real in the subzero weather. Many goals are achieved (the boy earns his first eagle feather); each day is dedicated to remembering a group: children, the elderly, the ill in body or spirit, women, ancestors; and in the spirit of peace, the event as a whole is seen as mending ``the sacred hoop of the world'' broken by the massacre.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/search/?sf=r&q=a+boys+becomes+a+man+at+wounded+knee

Grade Level: 4-6
Publisher: Walker & Co (September 1, 1992)

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The First Drawing by Mordicai Gerstein

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mordicai-gerstein/the-first-drawing/

The Secret Cave: Discovering Lascaux by Emily Arnold McCully

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/search/?sf=r&q=the+secret+cave

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A Boy Called Slow by Joseph Bruchac
The True Story of Sitting Bull from multi-award-winning author Joseph Bruchac.

Anxious to be given a name as strong and brave as that of his father, a proud Lakota Sioux grows into manhood, acting with careful deliberation, determination, and bravery, which eventually earned him his proud new name: Sitting Bull.
https://www.amazon.com/Boy-Called-Slow-Paperstar-Book/dp/069811616X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=U8FQDZAGOMNM&keywords=a+boy+called+slow&qid=1572849131&sprefix=a+boy+called+%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-1

An ALA Notable Book

"Being named Slow and growing up in the shadow of a great warrior hardly dwarfed the prospects of this protagonist: he grew up to be Sitting Bull. Bruchac's sensitively told story of Sitting Bull's coming-of-age reassures young boys that success comes through effort, not birth." —Booklist

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Another form of storytelling told through art: posters, movements like Black Lives Matter, and sculptures like The Fearless Girl, sculpted by Kristen Visbal tell us what it means to be powerful women and stand up for our rights. Photo courtesy of www.law.com via YouTube.com images.

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This example of protest art came from artist Shepard Fairey one year following the inauguration of Donald Trump. Photo courtesy of Shepard Fairey.

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Rap music and its ties to African oral tradition

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Rap music and its ties to African oral tradition

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Artists like J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Tupac, Nas, the Sugar Hill Gang have used words/poetry to "spit" fast lyrics depicting life in inner cities, police brutality, poverty, but more importantly, the celebrations of life, family and traditions in the African American culture.  Kendrick Lamar/J. Cole image courtesy of https://i.ytimg.com/vi/okF5gOTX9uM/maxresdefault.jpg via YouTube.com images.

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Rapper's Delight by the Sugarhill Gang produced in 1980 is an old school example of rap music infused with rhythm, call and response and drum beats indicative of African music.

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Sugarhill Gang - Rapper's Delight Lyrics

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The Reading Room: For Teachers/Librarians 

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The Reading Room: For Teachers/Librarians 

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Word! The African American Oral Tradition and its Rhetorical Impact on American Popular Culture by J. Hamlet. Read this scholarly article on the link between African and African American oral traditions and its importance to popular culture. K-12 students need to understand the significance of this traditional historical connection.
Hamlet, J. (2011). Word! The African American Oral Tradition and its Rhetorical Impact on American Popular Culture. Black History Bulletin, 74(1), 27-31.

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Word! The African American Oral Tradition and its Rhetorical Impact on American Popular Culture

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Janice D. Hamlet, Word! The African American Oral Tradition and its Rhetorical Impact on American Popular Culture, Black History Bulletin, Vol. 74, No. 1, Theme: "The Influence of African Americans on Popular Culture" (Winter/Spring 2011), pp. 27-31