Indian Fires

While we were wandering around Feast of the Hunters' Moon this year, we came across this Indian encampment.   I didn't have a chance to talk to the owners or to ask questions, but we were able to get some good pics.

  

I wish I had made a point of asking what kind of dwelling this is and which tribes made them.   It was covered with overlapped layers of woven mats of dried reeds or cattails or something like that.


Here's a look at what's cooking over the fire.   The fish is attached in a very interesting way.   I think the other meat is squirrel.  

Here's a better look at the meat over the fire. 

Pawpaws in a basket.   I thought the bark carrier was really interesting. 















Next to the big fire was this smaller fire surrounded by bark.  Clearly designed for smoking and sure enough when we got closer, we saw that it was in use for just that purpose.  

Some sort of meat was laid out above the smoking fire and drying for jerky. 

These squash rings were also being smoked and dried over the big fire.   Dried food didn't spoil and was easier to transport.

Feast of the Hunters' Moon - Beer

We always learn amazing things at the Feast and we never know ahead of time what that will be.  This year we learned all about making beer.

It was fascinating!  [And we don't even drink... or perhaps it was extra interesting because we don't drink?]

This is the brewmaster and his daughter from the Lafayette Brewing Company.  He explained the process and answered all of our questions.

Beer starts with malted barley.   To malt the barley, it is first wetted down enough to begin germination.  That converts the starches to sugars.   Then it is quick dried in a kiln.

Once the barley is malted, it is mixed with good water and brought to about 170 degrees.
  This is 'mash'.   The liquid is called 'sweet wort' and it must be drained off the cooked barley.

In 1750, the draining proceeded carefully from this barrel through a hole in the bottom stopped up with a sharpened stick that was wiggled just enough to let the sweet wort out and keep the barley mash in.   The sweet wort was collected in the bucket beneath and then carried to another fire.  

Once the liquid was drained off, it was heated again and mixed with dried hops.  Hops acts as both a flavoring and a preservative.  It was added at different times in the process for different purposes. 

The Children of the Feast of the Hunters' Moon

Every year I see so many amazing people at the Feast of the Hunters' Moon  that it's hard to choose who [whom] to highlight.  This year was no different but the warmer weather brought out more children than ever and I decided to highlight them this year.

These are just a few of the amazing kids and families doing amazing things at this reenactment. 

The basket above was full of this cute little guy here.    He and his sister provided a lot of entertainment for the folks encamped around them.

This young man was marching with his mom in one of the regiments.

There were many children who marched with the regiments.  Some were fifers, some carried fake wood musket cutouts in formation with their parents, who were carrying the real things with bayonets. 

My favorite of all was this family of at least 4 children [one was on Mom's knee in the back] who had set up camp.  This interaction involved protecting the apples from young sister who wanted to taste them all.  

There were a lot of Indians again this year and I was excited to see a number of children performing also.  

It's a big show and there is a lot of walking.  We often see kiddos being pulled in various types of wagons.   This is one of the most traditional wagons we saw.   She's got a sheepskin under her. 

This is not a child, but one of the coolest things we saw this year.   A giant Newfoundland dog with a sled. 

Read my previous posts from past years for more adorable children.  2011 posts are here and here. 2012 posts are  here and here.

Furs

We saw so much cool stuff at Feast of the Hunters' Moon this year that I have enough for several posts.  

This year, I took a longer look at the booths full of furs.  They were amazing.   This is a huge buffalo skin.   

There were plenty of cow skins and leather of all kinds. 

One of the most interesting things we saw was this coat made out of coyote skins.   I thought that was a pretty good use of coyotes.   

The man with the coyote coat had a great little display of skins.  Fox, skunk, mink, rabbit, groundhog, etc.  

Traditionally skins were cleaned well of all tissue and debris, then cured and later softened with the brains of the animal.   Each animal has just enough brains to use to tan its hide.  

Gross, but kind of interesting. 

Later, we found a booth full of all kinds of skins.  This was a stack of coyote skins so we could make our own coat if we wanted to.   [We didn't.]   They also had deer, cow, rabbit, sheep and all sorts of others, too.   

Feast of the Hunters' Moon

A couple of weeks ago we spent a morning at this year's Feast of the Hunters' Moon in Lafayette, Indiana at Ft. Ouiatenon.

It was splendid.

Splendid, I tell you!

I always take a ton of pictures and we talk to amazing people doing really interesting things.  The food is terrific.  There are loads and loads of people in costume walking around and as usual, I came home with enough material for acres of blog posts.  

Blow these pics for some terrific details.

Never fear!  I've split them up into topics and you'll see them appear over the next few weeks.

Here are a few pics that wouldn't fit elsewhere.  This is one of the regiments.   Someone was heard to say, 'Look!  Officers! If you drop your handkerchief...'  [Name that movie.]

 

Musket balls.   I thought they were marbles.  Nope.  Get a load of those lead ingots at the bottom.  In case you want to make your own balls.   And those are real powder horns made out of real horns.

While we were talking to the naval explosives guy, I caught this pic of a man in the back of the Navy encampment.   Look at what he's writing with.    There, in front of the river, it was one of those magic Feast moments. 

Some of the young people who come dressed in costume.  A little boy walking by said, "Look!  A lady pirate!".

Feast of the Hunter's Moon - Indians

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we went to Feast of the Hunter's Moon in September this year.  This pic [top] is a fur trader's set up.    I love the teepee. 

One thing I love about Feast is that I always learn a lot when I go there.

A lot, I tell you. 

As in, it always reminds me how much I don't know.  

I don't know a lot.

But now I know a bit more. 

This year I spent a bit of time focused on some of the Indian activities and tents.

At this fabulous tent, they had a great display of Indian food set up.   

She explained all about the types of corn and beans and squash that the Indians grew.

Every tribe had its own variety.

Bear beans are called bear beans because they are cooked with bear and big animal meats.

As opposed to rabbit beans, which are cooked with rabbit and squirrel and small game. 

I didn't know that. 

Indian corn had only 8 rows of kernels on an ear.  

They dried it and ground it up in a hollowed out tree stump. 

Here's what they had ground up already.

They used tools like these to cultivate their crops.

In addition, they gathered cattail pollen to eat.   I think she said they made bread with it.   [I need to fact check that....]

They harvested basswood fiber and milkweed stalks to make rope with. 

This man was chipping stone to make arrow heads.

And this guy made vessels with gourds.   They were beautiful.

This woman sat silently and shelled beans.  She threw the shells in the fire to keep it going. 

Silently.

Blow the pic up and look at details.   Notice the squash rings drying above the fire.    And notice her hands.   And the stuff in the bowls.  

The Men of the Feast of the Hunter's Moon

Last month we went to the Feast of the Hunter's Moon at Fort Ouiatenon in Lafayette, Indiana.    It's a wonderful gathering of fur traders, voyageurs, tradesmen, natives and soldiers that commemorates a similar gathering in 1749.

We go first thing in the morning.   I love it best with the cold mist and smoke from the fires and most everyone dressed up in time appropriate garb [my kids, too] or cameras [me].   

One of the things that has always struck me is the number of men who participate.   I'm talking full grown men [and a few young men] who are there because they want to be.  And they fully participate - with terrific costumes, amazing knowledge of the time period and the ability to demonstrate all kinds of skills.  

Sometimes they came with their families.    I love that.










[And how cute are these kids!] 

 These men really make the event for me.  

There were the soldiers....

And the fur traders.....

 These guys had amazing costumes and were real characters. 















The craftsmen are some of my favorites.    These guys are talkers and they love to explain what they're doing and why and how.  

The blacksmith.

The Indian making arrow heads.

The Indian who makes gourd baskets and vessels.  


















The guy who uses the foot powered lathe to turn chair legs.   He gave a great explanation of how Windsor chairs go together and why they work.  











The oar maker told us all about the different types of oars used by different peoples.  

The shop owners had great costumes: 
















The man on the left owned this men's clothing shop.   He was very well turned out. 

Love this guy's hat and earrings. 

This is one of the Dutch traders.   [Or maybe English - he's not wearing wooden shoes and most of the Dutch traders did...]

Buckskin breeches and great bag and quivers.    

These guys looked right at home.   

I found these men visiting with the Indian fur trader.    Notice  the powder horn.  

Love that blue!   And the beret!

Don't think it was just old guys, there were a few young men, too.

These boys were from the voyageur camp....














And this one is an early settler.











By far one of my all time favorite Feast moments came this year while we were walking around the voyageur camp.   

This area of the Feast is pretty quiet.   They have their tents and canoes and cooking fires set up along the river edge of the site.   It's peaceful.   They don't get a lot of visitors back there.

These seven men were all gathered in front of the canoe, way back in the quiet and decided to sing a French rowing song...with multiple harmonies.   We just happened to be passing by at exactly the right moment.   Glorious!