Interesting Things to Do

When the Storm God Rides, by Florence Stratton, collected by Bessie M. Reid [1936], at sacred-texts.com

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INTERESTING THINGS TO DO

1. Make an Indian book showing:

types of Indian homes

the dress of several tribes

designs on Indian pottery

designs on Indian baskets

designs on Indian blankets

An encyclopedia will give you some of the information you need.

2. Make some designs of your own for pottery, baskets, or blankets. Use the Indian symbols given in the book and combine them in different ways.

3. List all the things that you have found out about the Tejas Indians.

4. Choose a story to dramatize. Some are more easily dramatized than others.

5. Find the names of some plants from which the Indians made dyes. Get some herbs, roots, and flowers with which you can make dye. Dip various kinds of material in these dyes and see which materials take dye the best.

6. Find out:

In what kind of place the mescal plant grows.

Whether orioles nest in the pecan trees.

If there are many birds on the islands off the coast of Texas.

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If there is a little brown center in the magnolia blossom.

If the flowers of the wild orchid point south.

Is the Spanish moss helpful or harmful to trees? For what is it used?

7. Compare the actual nature facts with the things that the Indians believed about the following:

Why does the woodpecker peck the trees?

Why do owls see better in the night than in the daytime?

What causes hurricanes?

What causes the rainbow?

What makes the clouds?

Why does the mistletoe grow in trees?

What are the "amber tears" of the sweet gum tree?

8. In many different countries there are myths and legends that are much alike. How do you suppose this came to be?

Compare the Greek myth of Pandora with the story How Sickness Entered the World.

Compare the two legends of the magnolia given in this book. They were told by different Indian tribes. Which one do you like the better?

Compare the story Why Hummingbirds Drink Only Dew with the fable of The Hare and the Tortoise.

9. Find other stories about the rainbow.