More Thanksgiving Books & Crafts
Fairy Tales in a Different Culture: The Turkey Girl
For our final Native American Cinderella tale, I am sharing a Zuni version called The Turkey Girl retold by Penny Pollock. Now this story is a bit of a stretch to be a Cinderella tale, but I have seen it on various lists of types of Cinderella tales, so I am sharing it. First a bit about the Zuni people.
The Zuni live in New Mexico and have been there for 3,000 to 4,000 years (according to archeologists' estimations). Their reservation is about 450,000 acres. They are farmers of maize (corn) and wheat. They also now engage in jewelry making as an important income to the Zuni people. The traditional Zuni life is a matrilineal line. They have very specific groups and order for religion and life. Zunis still practice their own religion and beliefs. They are very artistic and express their beliefs in their art. The Zuni language is believed to be more than 7,000 years old.
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| Source: By Kmusser (Self-made using the National Atlas.) [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons |
The Zuni live in pueblo style of houses. Pueblos are built of clay and often are built into the ground or on top of one another. Here is a picture I found of a Zuni Pueblo. (Sources: The Pueblo of Zuni, Zuni Indians, Wikipedia)
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| Source: Timothy H. O'Sullivan [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
A young orphan girl lived in the shadow of Thunder Mountain
and nestled against the edge of the pueblo village, Matsaki.
She was very poor and herded turkeys for a living. The wealthy families of
Matsaki valued the turkey tail feathers for decorating
prayer sticks and ceremonial masks. They paid the young girl with corn and
cast-off clothes and called her the Turkey Girl.
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| Source: Wikimedia Commons |
Her days started at dawn when she led the villagers' turkeys to the
flat-topped mesa of Thunder Mountain to graze. Then at sunset she led
the turkeys back to their stockade of cedar sticks. The turkeys were her only
friends. The humans did not talk to her even when she went to the
spring to get water and saw others there.
One night while at the spring, a herald-priest
announced from one of the flat housetops that a Dance of the Sacred Bird would
be held in Hawikuh in four days time. The Turkey Girl caught the excitement and imagined herself
dancing with others. She could not stop dreaming of the dance and told the
turkeys all about her dreams. On the day of the dance, the villagers left at
dawn for Hawikuh. The Turkey Girl was left with the turkeys and her normal day,
however she had tears running down her cheeks. While walking along the birds cause a commotion and
get her attention. Then a huge turkey stepped forward and begins to talk to her and
tells her she shall go to the dance. Then he tells her the turkeys will take care of
her tattered clothes if she goes into the pen with them.
In their pen the turkeys break into song and dance
and clean the girl. Then they have her undress. Swaying up and down
the turkeys tread and tap new life into her clothes. They sing while they
work. Soon she is dressed in a white
doeskin dress belted with red and yellow cloth. They give her rare shells and beautiful moccasins. Next the turkeys cough up jewels that the people have dropped on the ground over the years. Then the turkeys give her one
condition--she must not forget them and will show this by returning to them before Sun-Father
returns to his sacred place and while she is gone to leave their pen unlocked
so if she does not return before night they will be free.
She rushes off to the dance feeling beautiful and special. When she arrives the dancing has already started.
She hears music from drums, flutes, turtle rattles and notched sticks. The musicians miss a beat when
they see the beautiful stranger. She
joins the dance and has a wonderful time. The braves want to dance near her. As
the sun's rays began to go down, she thinks when the music dies I will leave,
but with each break the music started right back up and she continued to dance. As darkness approaches she thinks of leaving, but a brave
brushes against her and she wonders why she will leave for turkeys. Then as night sets in she remembers the kindness of the
turkeys and she runs home to their pen. She however is too late. The turkeys had waited for the sun to set but left Matsaki
forever. She is full of sorrow and even more so when she sees her
dress was back to rags. She understands she has lost her turkey friends forever.
From this day on the turkeys have lived apart from their
tall brothers for the Turkey Girl had not kept her word.
Join us later this week for more on Native Americans!! Also visit last week's fairy tales for other Native American versions of Cinderella.
More to Thanksgiving: Cranberries
I feel like so much of Thanksgiving is focused on the meal. We tend to forget the real reason for Thanksgiving. Most of us are no longer farmers and you can get just about anything you want to eat at any time of the year nowadays. I am going to take some time this week to look at things other than turkey and the pilgrims. Today's topic is still food, but it is one that is truly from Thanksgiving and Massachusetts. It is cranberries. We are going to look beyond using them for sauce (although I do love making a whole berry sauce each year). Hazel and I started with a book called Cranberries by William Jaspersohn. Now Hazel loves cranberries or at least dried cranberries, cranberry sauce and cranberry baked goods. She is not completely fond of cranberry juice, but will drink one of the cran-other fruit juices, so I picked up this book for that reason. Also when I was researching one of my favorite topics--Native Americans, I found some neat decorations using cranberries.
The book talks about the white blooms of the cranberry plants and how they reminded the pilgrims of cranes. They named them "crane-berries" which has been shortened to cranberries. In August the cranberries are a waxy green and in September they begin to turn red. The book also goes through the two ways of picking the cranberries depending on what will happen with the cranberries. It then goes through the whole process of packaging them.
Now according to an article in Better Homes and Gardens (November 2013, page 172), cranberries are loaded with nutrition from vitamin C to antioxidants and other health benefits. They quote one study showing that people who drank two glasses of low-sugar cranberry juice a day had significant drop in their blood pressure. They also can ward off urinary-tract infections, gum disease and stomach ulcers.
The second thing we did was great for a centerpiece. I found the idea on Many Hoops. Many Hoops is wonderful resource for Thanksgiving. It is a website devoted to uniting America and getting past our horrible history. It is a project that was run by two women: one a descendent of the pilgrims and the other a Native American. This is the simple idea of using candles and cranberries. Their glass dish looks so much better than our dish.
Of course there is also the other favorite of stringing popcorn and cranberries for the Christmas tree. Another great idea was shared at Sharing Saturday by Little Bins for Little Hands called Fine Motor Skills with Cranberries. She has many wonderful tools to use with the cranberries. What a fun way to play and bring Thanksgiving to her child.
So go get healthy and have some cranberries and maybe try a few of the great decorations out there. I hope you will join us tomorrow for our final Native American Cinderella tale. This one is from the Zuni Tribe. If you missed the last ones there have been two weeks of four similar tales from various Native American tribes and you can find them here and here. Later this week we will look at Squanto as well as other Native American crafts and history as well.
Sharing Saturday 13-45
Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! There were some amazing and inspiring things shared. I haven't seen all of them, but have enjoyed the ones I have gotten to so far. I hope you have had a chance to check them all out and leave some comment love for each other! Now onto our features.
From Gift of Curiosity: 20+ Turkey Crafts & Activities
With Thanksgiving next week, I decided to feature some of the Thanksgiving lessons, crafts and decorations shared. We had so many wonderful Thanksgiving ideas shared. I picked only a few of them. If you are looking for a lesson, craft or decoration, make sure to go back and check the rest of them.
1) From Thank You Honey: Tiny Turkey's
2) From Green Owl Art: Corn Cob Doll
3) From Sugar Aunts: Cardboard Tube Turkey Juice Box Cover
4) From There's Just One Mommy: Candy Corn Turkey
5) From 3 Boys and a Dog: Thanksgiving Printables: Reading Flashcards
6 & 7) From Bible Fun for Kids: Thanksgiving with Preschool
8) From Kims Kandy Kreations: Turkey Napkin Place Card Printable
9) From EduArt 4 Kids: Thanksgiving Crafts: Awesome Turkeys and Indian Pottery (Sorry I couldn't take a picture from the site.)
Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog.
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This week we shared two more Native American Cinderella tales, our exploration of Thailand with Around the World in 12 Dishes, a round-up of Thanksgiving books we enjoy and a thankful corn craft, and a wonderful flamingo book for Flamingo Friday.
Now for This Week's Party
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Flamingo Friday: Marco Flamingo
I have been waiting for the cold weather to share this flamingo book with you. In New England it has been winter cold lately, so I think this is the perfect time to share. The book is Marco Flamingo by Sheila Jarkins. This book is in both English and Spanish. Hazel got frustrated when I read her the Spanish, but we keep trying. Apparently there is a whole series of books about Marco Flamingo. I will try to find some of the other versions to see where Marco explores.
In this story, Marco is curious about winter. He asks the winter birds when they return what it is like. They all tell him, "You don't want to know." However he really does, so he takes off to fly north. He discovers all sorts of new things like skiing, snowshoeing, snowballs, etc. He has a great time and loves the weather. He does add winter gear in each picture: scarf, hat, sweater and mitten boots. It is a wonderful book about trying new things and not being afraid to be curious.
To go with this book, I made Miss Mingo a scarf. I am in the middle of making doll clothes and one of my patterns included a loop scarf, so I tried it out. I also had some fabric that looks knitted that I bought ages ago for dollhouse crafts and I thought this would be perfect. I am going to use it with Hazel's Christmas/birthday gifts. She is getting an 18-inch doll from Santa this year and most of her gifts stem around that. So that is the first adventure of Marco Flamingo. I hope you will join us for Sharing Saturday!!
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