For my social studies project I picked the Lenni Lenape tribe. For my first paragraph, I am going to write about what the Lenni Lenape Indians lived in and how it’s built. In my second paragraph, I am going to write about how the Lenape Indians dressed and what their jobs were.
It’s very interesting how the Lenape Indians built their homes. A wigwam is the name of the home that Lenape Indians lived in. If you were a Lenape child, your father and brothers were the ones to cut down young trees called saplings, trees with skinny trunks; they cut off the branches to make wood poles. First, they cut down saplings, and then trimmed off the branches. Then they dug holes in the ground and put saplings in them. This held the saplings in place. The people bent the saplings over, and then lashed them together with cord, vines, or animal skins, this made the frame. Finally, they covered the frame with bark or mats made of grasses and reeds and left a hole in the top so smoke from the fire can escape. And that’s how you make a wigwam!
Now we’re talking about how the Lenape Indians dressed and what their jobs were. In the summer, they wore very little clothing. If you are a boy, you would wear a breechcloth and a belt around your waist. If you’re a girl, you may have worn a skirt made out of animal skins. Men, women, and children all have jobs to do. As a child you have to learn how your father built your family’s home. Your father and the other men did the hunting; they looked for deer, bears, squirrels, raccoons, and other animals. In order to catch them they have to be patient and quiet while hiding in the forest. When the men brought home the animals they hunted, the women take over. The mother takes the skin off the animal and she gets it ready to sew it into warm robes and leggings. It is your mother’s job to sew the clothes. She uses the needle made out of animal bones and thread out of sinews. If you were a boy, you would learn all about the woods and rivers. You learn how to tell rabbit tracks from turkey tracks, and to be very quiet in the forest. If you are a girl, you learned about working in the fields and garden and how to sew and make clothes just like the mother.
For my social studies project, I learned a lot about the Lenni Lenape Indian tribe. I learned what kind of house they lived in and how it was built and the name of it, a wigwam. I also learned what they wore and what their duties were. Learning the life of a Lenni Lenape Indiana was very interesting.
By: Kaela Wilson
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