By Lauren, Alexa, Christina

Table of ContentsIntroduction……………………………………………………… pg 1

Food…………………………………………………………………..pg 3

Homes…………………………………………………………………pg 5

Religion and Rituals…………………………….. ……………pg 7

Art……………………………………………………………………….pg 9

Music…………………………………………………………………..pg 11

Games ………………………..……………………………………….pg13

Roles of Women, Men and Children……………………pg 15

Conclusion…………………………………………………………..pg 17

IntroductionHave you ever heard of the Onondaga tribe? The

Onondaga are a part of the Iroquois. They called themselves the People on the Hills. Also, they called themselves the fire keepers. They are called the fire keepers because their land was in the center of all the Iroquois tribes. These people were the first to come to Turtle Island-North America. They lived in this part of North America for many centuries. Their original name is the Haudenosaunee.

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FoodThe Onondaga ate multiple foods. Some foods were

found in forests, like berries, fruit, and nuts. They also got fresh, clean water. They hunted animals too. For example , when there was a nearby lake, they caught fish, or if there were some deer close by, they hunted them. But, they also planted rows and rows of vegetables. For example they ate corn, beans, and squash. Maple sap was found in maple trees too. It was good to put on treats, or on other foods. These were some foods that the Onondaga ate.

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Homes

The Onondaga tribe lived in longhouses. They used elm bark, tree trunks, and deer tendons to make the longhouses. They were 30-200 feet long, 15-20 feet wide and 10-20 feet high. There were smoke holes at the top of each longhouse to let out the smoke from the fire pit. The two doors, one at the front and one at the back of the longhouse, were covered with animal skins. There are no windows in the longhouses. Fires were shared by two families. They also had tons of bunk beds. Sometimes woven screens were used to divide longhouses to provide each family privacy.

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Religions and RitualsThe Onondaga celebrate a yearly cycle of seasons.

Some of the ceremonies are Green Corn, Strawberry, Planting, Harvest, and Midwinter. They begin and end each ceremony with prayers. At each ceremony there was ancient dances and songs. Special people called Keepers of the Faith, are selected to be carefully prepared the ceremony.

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The Art

The Onondaga used trees that had branches that were really high up. So they made a canoe out of it. Also they made knife and sharpened them by a rock. When it was snowing they made snow shoes so they can walk in the snow. They made snow shoes by a wooden frame tied together. Finally they had war clubs. They made it by a wooden stick and a rock. They use the war club to chop trees.

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The MusicThe Onondaga tribe played music in the Faith

Keeper’s house. They practiced in that house. They also practice in with Clan Mother. Mostly only the girls sang the songs. They also sang at any festival. The Native Americans also sang in the longhouses. They used crops and other materials to make sounds and music.

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The GamesThe Native Americans played a lot of games. One

game was lacrosse. Lacrosse was their most favorite sport. The goal post were a mile away. Also the game could be played for days. The sticks were made of hickory wood.

Another game was darts. The played it by two teams. Then each team had six darts or spears. Each team had a hoop roll in front of them. They had to try to get the darts through the hoop. The team that was the most accurate won.

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The roles of the men, women, and children

The roles of the men are making shelter and palisade. They cut down trees, build, carve canoes, to defend the village and hunted.

The roles of the women are when the men killed an animal the women had to carry it back to the village, they had to tan deer skin to make clothing, take deer meat and cook it or smoke it, grew crops, take care of the children, cook, and weave baskets.

The roles of the children are to help get water and fire wood. The roles of the boys were to learn to shoot a bow and arrow and build traps for animals. The roles of the girls were to cook, make pottery, and make clothing.

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ConclusionThe Onondaga tribe was very

interesting. They have children, women, and men working hard for food, health and shelter. They enjoyed many of the games they played. The Onondaga tribe had a lot of people in their village.

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