Dec 04 2009

American Indians—Preserving Culture

Published by Kay Mok under Cultural Passport Assigments

DSC_0470

My visit to the National Museum of the American Indian was my first time being exposed first-person to the culture that lived on the land years before the Europeans had arrived. I met a lady whose name I do not recall, but is on the left in the photo above. She is a professor in CUNY City College and has taught a course in Native American stitching. I saw her making stitches live with buffalo sinews, which are the first threads that Native Americans use. The Native Americans use all parts of the Buffalo—sinews for threads, stomach for pouch, fur for clothing, etc. It is fascinating to see her fingers moving the sinews around and creating colorful patterns that I have only seen in textbooks and on the internet.

DSC_0471 Buffalo Sinews

DSC_0472 Buffalo Stomach Pouch

2 responses so far




2 Responses to “American Indians—Preserving Culture”

  1.   # Nathaly Martinezon 09 Dec 2009 at 11:40 pm

    Aww, that reminds me of when I was a younger and I would make hats out of paper and place feathers on them and then pretend that i was a Native American. I don’t know why but I have always been very fond of Native Americans.

  2.   # Fabiana Sagreraon 06 Dec 2009 at 12:01 am

    These are amazingly beautiful, I hope that the Native American culture never dies out because its filled with so many unique things that other cultures don’t have.