Native American Speaker!

Today in class we had a surprising guest speaker: Evan T. Pritchard a Native American. What was so amazing was that for our class field work, we will be teaching native Americans and he gave us first hand stories and background about the Algonquin Tribe and Native Americans. He was super outgoing and was thrilled to be sharing his culture with us eager listeners. 

He made two maps that indicated Native Americans locations, trails, and history. These maps were created by studying hundreds of previously made maps and combining them. I have included a picture of both maps and him showing them to our class. 

He then went into a lecture about how our school's town has so much historical Native American history to it. We have Washington's Headquarters in our town. What was interesting about that- it used to be a trail for the Native Americans. It was very interesting to find that information out. Some of our town houses are stone and old-fashioned and Mr. Pritchard said that these homes were built around 1695-1710. Of course, the must have gotten upgrades throughout the several years in between, but the structure is originally from that time period. What is so interesting about them is that they are built on former Native American trails also! 

Then he went around and asked us each our home location. The cities and states varied but each had some connection to the Native Americans. My hometown is by water, so the Native Americans had a trail leading up to the water to collect fish and sea life. I know exactly where the water is so that was so neat to imagine Native American walking around my town to get their fish for food. 

One interesting story was about how they found a Native American blade from the Trail times a few years back. This blade was still in tact and could easily harm whatever it scrapped against. That is how sharp they were made. Not even that, but how strong they were made- they lasted all of these years with erosion. 

Then Mr. Pritchard took our a clarinet type instrument and started improvisational playing it. It was very beautiful and I have attached a picture. After, he played the drum type instrument. This some had words to it and was a welcome song. They both sounded very authentic. after he discussed his authentic attire, this coat was a prayer coat. Each five strings counts as something and every time the wind blows,it a prayer. I thought that was very interesting.