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Upon arrival at Native American Days, each class is divided into three "tribes." Each tribe rotates through four activities: a hike, games, home-building and crafts. During the hour-long hike, students listen to Native American stories while looking for bones and snake skins that were planted by parent volunteers. They also look for significant plants like poison oak and bay leaves. They learn a modern version of a Native American game that trained older children to accurately throw spears. Bark houses were built using redwood and rocks and the kids played floor games inside. The crafts included basket weaving and making prayer sticks. To make the prayer (or wish) sticks, the children wrote their wish on a piece of paper and then wrapped the wish to a stick using yarn, plants and beads. The idea of the prayer stick is to make positive wishes for good health or prosperity and give the completed stick to someone else. Culver said the Native Americans would continue to pass the prayer stick from person to person with the thought that it would eventually return to its maker. "This is the origin of the term Indian Giver. Its origin is really a positive term," said Culver.
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA