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The Great Plains believed in good and bad spirits.

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The Eastern Woodland believed in bad spirits and they believe that they always lived their. One of their traditions is dancing too!

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Every year in Connecticut you can catch an array of the state's colors on display right next to talented dancers who have gathered to partake in the Mashantucket Pequot Nations Green Corn Festival known as Schemitzun.

The annual event draws Eastern Woodland tribes from Connecticut to Wisconsin to the cultural grounds of the reservation - this year the event will be held August 26 and 27, 2017. Competitive and honor dances tend to bring out the best from the tiniest dancers to the elders.

The 2014 emcee Wayne Reels, Mashantucket Pequot, kept the spirits high and the fancy dancers on their toes. Drum groups Eastern Eagle, Young Blood, Silver Cloud and Storm Boys brought the heartbeat to the event.

Schemitzun is one of the best-attended pow wows on the northeast coast. Each year the event features authentic Native foods and certified craft vendors from all over Turtle Island. In 2014, an educational area featured traditional foods and cooking methods, storytelling, and examples of early Eastern Woodland village life.

The following images were taken at the 2014 festival.
This story was originally published August 29, 2014.

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The Colors of Schemitzun, The Green Corn Festival (photos) - Indian Country Media Network

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Every year in Connecticut you can catch an array of the state's colors on display right next to talented dancers who have gathered to partake in the Mashantucket Pequot Nations Green Corn Festival known as Schemitzun.

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The Eastern Woodland make torches, fish traps, bone offs, nets, spears and fish hooks to use as weapons and tools..

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Native American tribes used tools and weapons they fashioned out of materials from the environment, including wood, stone, and animal bone or sinew. Tribes from different regions had varied surroundings to work with, necessitating different types of tools and weapons. The tribes made whatever they needed to survive their particular climate and lifestyle.

The Arctic

The Inuits, or First Nation People, live in the Arctic, including Alaska, Russia, Greenland and Canada. The extreme cold and icy surroundings make tools for skinning animals and hunting necessary, as opposed to tools for planting. Most tools are made of stone, or animal bones and teeth. First Nation People use sealskin floats when harpooning animals to keep the prey from diving deeply after being speared. They also use fishing nets, lines and spears. They have a special stone knife called an ulu, which they use for butchering and skinning animals. Their weapons include stone clubs, ivory harpoons, spears and wooden bows and arrows. They travel in dog sleds and kayaks.

Great Plains

Native Americans who inhabited the Great Plains area of North America included the Pawnee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Sioux, Blackfeet and Comanche. Their tools and weapons were made of wood and buffalo parts. The Plains Indians were nomadic; they followed the migration of the buffalo. They carried their belongings on a sled structure called a travois. Weapons included the bow and arrow, and the spear. Traditionally, their bowls and utensils were made of buffalo hide and bone. When settlers introduced firearms and metal tools in the 19th century, traditional crafts declined. The decimation of the buffalo population by white settlers completely disrupted the way of life of the Plains Indians.

The Southwest

The Pueblo Indians originally lived in the Southwest and included tribes such as the Zuni, Rio Grande Pueblo and Hopi. These people made baskets out of yucca, willow and other plant fibers, lining some baskets with pitch for transporting water or for cooking. Drills made of flaked stone were used to make beads. Pueblo peoples also used grinding stones for food preparation and stone receptacles to hold paint pigment. For weapons, they used spears, spear throwers -- called atlatls -- and the bow and arrow. To hunt, they used nets, snares, throwing sticks and spears. The Pueblos also had pottery and looms for weaving.

The Northeast

The Iroquois people originated in the region of the United States that is currently New York, and spread across the Northeast. Also known as Five Nations, the Iroquois League includes the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca tribes. They used a variety of tools made of stone, wood and animal parts. They carved spoons and other dishware from wood, often with decorative embellishments. They wove baskets of plant fibers. Antlers became hole punching tools and spear tips, or were carved out to make pipes. They used the bow and arrow. Another weapon was the polished stone ax, also used as a tool for woodworking. They also made pots out of clay and snowshoes out of wood and animal fiber.

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Native American Tools & Weapons | Synonym

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Native American tribes used tools and weapons they fashioned out of materials from the environment, including wood, stone, and animal bone or sinew. Tribes from different regions had varied surroundings to work with, necessitating different types of tools and weapons. The tribes made whatever they needed to survive their particular climate and lifestyle.

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The Eastern Woodland make wigwams and tee-pees. This is how they make a wigwam. First they make the base with sticks and strong string. Then they put a skirt around the bottom. Finally they cover it in birch bark. They use bone offs to make holes and tie the same string through and over the birch bark and sticks. This take very long and they need a lot of birch bark.

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Mrs. Barber's Brainy Bytes - z5 Eastern Woodlands

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Trees,water,wind,forest,flowers  and plants are some of the many nature features of the Eastern Woodland.

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Eastern Woodland - D'Abate Rooms 205 & 206 Virtual Museum

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Welcome to D'Abate Rooms 205 and 206 Virtual Museum!

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They made tee pee's as their homes. They used  wooden poles as the base. Then they put buffalo hide over it. Next they hammer in the buffalo hide in the ground. Finally they clear it for a fire area. The smoke has to be able to come out at the top. This is how the Great Plains made their tee-pees.

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They make hammers,bow and arrows and arrow heads these are only some weapons and tools  the Great Plains use.

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Hills,wind,water,grass and trees, this is only some of the nature in the Great Plains.

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Samuel H. Ordway, Jr. Memorial Preserve | The Nature Conservancy

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The grasslands of the Great Plains once covered one-fifth of the North American Continent. Ordway represents a fraction of what remains after the west was settled.