Webutuck Mural

NTERPRETATION OF THE WEBUTUCK MURAL

 

The mural depicts the life cycle of a Mohican family living at the time of the first European settlers, as it followed the seasons in the WebutuckValley/place />. The men held the responsibility of providing game, fishing, creating heavy craft, and defending the family unit. They were also the priests in charge of ritual religious matters, and they enforced the social structure of tribal government. The women were the owners of the houses; they prepared the food and cared for the small children, and participated in the governance of laws by heading clans, and contributing to Tribal decisions. Children helped the family unit at very early age, by traditionally apprenticing to the labors of the parents. The elders were cared for by all the members of the tribe, highly revered, and acted as the principal advisers in all spiritual and governing matters. There was no such thing as private property. What follows is an explanation of the functions, objects, and costumes depicted as a summary of how the Original Indigenous People of the WebutuckValley/place /> lived.

 

 

 

ROUND CENTER PANEL

 

 

 

1-The warrior-provider, walking with his wife and holding his son by the hand, is pointing out something of interest, perhaps some game in the distance. He is wearing a traditional buck-skin legging, sewn so they can be adjusted to size, a deer-horn handled flint knife in a beaded sheath of leather, and carrying a bow and arrows in a basket of puma skin. Around his neck are beads of Wampum, a blue and white sea shell that was used also as currency, as well as a necklace of bear claws, symbolizing successful hunts, and power. Painted on the face, there is a lightening bolt, symbol of speed and light, and a double line across the nose, used by all Native American Tribes as recognition of a warrior. The dots on the forehead are the number of raids the person has participated in, and the split ear lobes carry a ring made of sea shell. The hair is shaved on a line from ear to ear, and is gathered on the back-top in a bun, wrapped by a long red sash, decorated with metal buttons. The one white wing feather is worn on the side, and symbolizes having been initiated into one of the various religious societies. The moccasins are deer leather, sewn and decorated with beads, or died porcupine quills.

 

2-The mother is carrying a papoose with a bound child, corn from the fresh harvest, and a traditional ceramic pot, round on the bottom, but with four flat sides over the shoulder. It would be used to carry seeds, water, and to cook. Her soft deer skin dress and leggings are carefully and expertly cured with brain, and are sewn with gut-string, and bone needles. The strap used to carry her papoose on her forehead, also is to be strapped to a low branch of a tree while the mother works the fields, or gathers wood, seeds and berries. She is also carrying a fascia of corn, the most used and revered food, besides squash, beans, and game, and universally cultivated by Native tribes.

 

3-The small but efficient housing units called Wigwam, were built in less than a day, using an infrastructure of bent twigs, planted in the ground, tied together with strips of “under-bark”, and forming a cage-like cupola, then covered with large panels of fresh tree bark, and often insulated with a layer of sweetgrass ion the interior. A smoke-hole was left on the center top, able to be closed by a leather sheath. The door, also blocked by a curtain of leather or woven reads, always faced east. Each family unit lived in one, whereas some groups built a long-house, a multi-family vaulted building (made of the same material with the identical technology of the wigwam), some of which reached the length of 200 feet. Traditionally, a village was inhabited no longer than a generation, due to the depleting of wood, animas, etc., and a new territory was then chosen in a short migration. Many instances saw the tribes coming back and re-building a village on the spot of an old one after a few decades.

 

4-The child is learning while being guided and protected by his parents. He is carrying a functioning “toy” bow, while the arrows sheath is made of birch bark. These objects are the first things that a boy child is taught to make.

 

5-The map in the background shows the typography of the Webutuck territory. The red dots and names are the villages or hunting camps that are known to have existed in the area and the yellow names are of the current towns. Webutuck means “Fertile Hunting Grounds” in the local Algonquian dialect, as spoken by the Mohican and Lenape tribes that mostly populated the area for millenniums. The hunts were many times conducted in a “burn and hunt” method, or “controlled burn trapping”. The clearing of the brush not only netted vast amount of game, but helped re-generate the land, and aided in the planting of crops. It also offered a clearer view of potentially hostile action by other tribes, minimizing surprise raids.

 

 

 

 

 

SPRING PANEL

 

 

 

1-It is the beginning of the year: spring. The village is airing the winter skins, cleaning interiors of their dwelling, preparing and repairing the boats for river-trading and fishing.

 

2-A young hunter is chasing a rabbit, wielding a “rabbit-stick”, a boomerang-shaped flat piece of hard wood, thrown in a spinning motion to trip the hare.

 

3-The grandmother is carrying a basket of sweet grass and reeds, filled with fish. Because of her vast life-experience, she is an indispensable presence during planting, advising and teaching. The Algonquian tribes were Marti-linear, a social system where the women hold primary importance in the home (thus holding sole ownership), and in planting. Linear descent is based on women.

 

4-The mother places a fish in the hole with the seeds, so as to enrich the nutrient content of the ground, assuring successful fertility of the seeds.

 

5-The little girl helps place four corn seeds in each mound, pre soaked in water, and carried in a leather seed bag, an item highly cared for in the family.

 

6-The father, dressed in traditional leggings and moccasins, but wearing a style of jacket copied from the Dutch, first makes a mound, then digs a hole with a planting stick, in a rotating motion, six to ten inches deep. The mounds are in rows three feet apart from one another, and are also planted in tandem with beans and squash, the bean plants climbing the corn stalks as they rise.

 

 

 

SUMMER PANEL

 

1- The warrior-provider is returning from a successful hunt, shouldering a young buck, from which will be taken the skin and the brain for cloth, rugs, bags, curtains and blankets, shoes etc., the horns to be used as handles, spoons, jewelry, tools, and weapons. The meat will be eaten, salted and dried for future consumption. The bones will be used as musical instruments, tools, and needles, after the very nutritious marrow is eaten. The hooves will be used as gambling tools, and strung together to function as bells.

 

2-“Calendar tree”, a tree stump usually struck by lightening, on which is recorded main events of the tribal life and adventures. Also used to record eclipses, astral events such as comets, droughts, etc. The bark is stripped, and the symbols are either carved, painted, or both.

 

3-River trading. Close proximity to a water-way was a prerequisite for the location of a village. The easy travel provided by canoes enabled trade to be carried on with otherwise unreachable tribes, the easy transportation of goods, abundant fishing, and easy access to the most important of all elements for survival: water. For hunters, it provided the occasions to catch animals that would drink from the rivers, waterfowl, and allow for cultivation of wild rice, reed-roots, and easy irrigation of fields. In this case, food and animal skins are changing hands, as are feathers, shells, weapons, clothing, pottery and baskets. The traders who are visiting are Huron, from the north, and are using a birch bark canoe, typical of northern tribes. They are made by tying cured birch bark on an infrastructure of ash branches, then sealing the joints with heated pine pitch. This made for a strong, flexible, easy to repair light boat.

 

4-The wooden boat is the river transportation used by the local Indigenous Tribes. It was scooped out and sculpted from a single trunk, and then a controlled fire was ignited on top, thus facilitating the scooping out of the interior, by chipping away the soft charcoal and forming a concavity.

 

5-The dog was a loyal and much welcome member of the tribe. Dogs were used as pets, transportation (by hitching a tandem stick pack on them), helpers in the hunt, and guards.

 

6-The young woman is carrying a sack filled with berries, fruit, nuts, roots, and vegetables collected during a summer gathering expedition.

 

 

 

AUTUMN PANEL

 

1-The village is preparing for winter. Grasses and reeds are gathered for insulation of the wigwams, fish are caught in river traps (avenues created in the water with fences of branches, guiding the fish to small pools dug out of the shore, then closed so as to trap the fish), dried and smoked, skins are treated, wood is gathered for interior cooking and eating, boats are covered and dry-docked, and corn is dried and pounded into flower.

 

2-Wood is cut by chopping tools fashioned by attaching a heavy sharpened stone to a hard wood handle, tied with sinew and sealed with pitch.

 

3-A leather container is used to supply the water necessary for wetting the trunk of a tree about to be burnt and felled.

 

4-The warrior-provider is cutting down a large tree, used for boat-making, architecture, fuel, etc. The common method used, was to burn the bottom first as much as possible, assuring that the flames would not go too high by tying moss bundles to the tree, and continuously wetting them. By then just chopping the charcoaled wood, it cut the time and effort (otherwise required by just chopping the raw wood) quite a bit.

 

5-A woman is assisting the falling of the tree by tending and feeding the fire, using dried twigs gathered and carried on her back.

 

6-It is harvest time: the women denude the fields of corn of their mature cornels, they gather pumpkins, squash, and beans, peppers and roots, carry the harvest to the village, and prepare the bounty for the winter. At this time, rituals are conducted to thank the Creator, and Mother Nature, for the sustenance granted.

 

 

 

WINTER PANEL

 

1-The father is fashioning a cradle board out of Ash, readied for the baby held by his wife. The cradle will be used to carry the child wrapped in bunting made of soft, treated rabbit skin, and bound with sinew strips. The top of the cradle is sculpted with clouds symbols, thanking the sky for fertility. On the top front of the cradle board will be placed a half wooden ring, serving to protect the child in case the board falls forward, and to serve as a curtain holder, in case the baby needs cover.

 

2-Every corner of the interior is used for storage, while some perishable foods are hung from the ceiling, keeping them away from rodents.

 

3-A family member is entering with gathered kindling, by moving the door blanket over, and wearing snow shoes, widely used by North American Indians well into pre-historic times.

 

4-The Grandfather, wearing a traditional head dress of turkey tail feathers that only “chiefs” and “priests” may wear, is telling a story to the children, thus continuing the oral history of the tribe. He is tending the fire, on which soup is being heated in a ceramic pot, made with the coil system, and using the sparks caused by poking for effect. On his side, there is a “turtle shaker” a ceremonial instrument made with a dried snapping turtle, filled with pebbles, and with a neck stretched and attached to a long piece of wood, then covered with leather.

 

5-On the ground, there are various objects that are indispensable in the daily life of the family: a wooden mortar and pestle, used to pound and mash herbs, nuts, corn, meat, etc., a wooden bow drill with a flint tip, used to make holes in wood or shells, a wooden scoop spoon, a “crocked knife”, used for cutting reeds to make baskets, and a bark-rattler. On the shelf next to the family, is a ceremonial water-drum, made of wood filled with water, to create a tight and deep sound. Under the objects is a skin, stretched and cured outside on a wooden frame, the holes on the edge being made to tie the skin to.

 

6-The two children, wrapped in blankets of fur and trade cloth, are attentively following the story of the impressive elder; one is holding a cloth and corn-husk doll. Their puppy sleeps behind them.

 

www.webutuckschools.org/district/mural.htm

 

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