She Was an American Girl Camp

Fur or Feathers?

We started the day playing the game fur or feathers. Girls chose the name of an animal that lives in the same geographical area as Kaya lived or that were important to Kaya. The girls asked questions does it have fur, does it live in water, is it a herbivore, etc until they guessed the animal.

Parfleches are rawhide carrying cases that Native American Tribes used to hold clothing, valuables, personal items and tools while traveling. The Nez Perce would use them while traveling on buffalo hunts. These "suitcases" were decorated with geometric designs. Typically blue, black, brown, red, yellow and green were the colors used to make the designs. We made doll sized parfleches today. Girls who bring in a brown bag tomorrow will hopefully have a chance to make a large size parfleche.

A travois is a frame structure that is used by the Nez Perce people to drag items over distances. They can be pulled by a person, horse or dog. Wheels would have encountered problems on soft soil, forest floors or in snow so this method worked well enough for the Nez Perce

Kaya and other Nez Perce girls and women would go to gather food. We discussed some of the berries they may collect yesterday and today we discussed the roots and bulbs they may dig up and cook for meals. The camas bulb was a common meal. They would bake it in a pit for two days! Having a root bag to gather all the bulbs was a great help for this chore.

Nez Perce communities are centered around peace and cooperation. Girls who finished their bags were quick to help those who needed assistance.

Corn wasn't introduced to the Nez Perce until missionaries brought it to them, however, they would dig up the roots called kouse that were cornlike. They would grind the roots and turn it into soup or make it into cakes for later use. We made corn pancakes today! Everyone tried them. Some of the girls loved, loved, loved them!

These girls were itching for seconds!!

Here is our recipe for delicious corn pancakes:

1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix

3/4 cup of milk

1/4 cup of yogurt (We used vanilla, plain would be fine. The recipe calls for 1 egg but we adjusted for an allergy)

1 can of corn, drained

Mix together and cook as you would any tasty pancake. Add a bit of honey on top! Yum!

OUR LOVELY AMERICAN GIRLS....AND THEIR DOLLS!!!

We began our fun-filled day together introducing ourselves, our dolls, and our favorite outdoor place. Kaya, the American girl character we are focusing on is a member of the Nez Perce tribe from the Wallowa Valley. She loves the outdoors and thinks her home is the most beautiful and wonderful place on earth. We drew pictures of our favorite places and pinned them on the wall.

Exploring the Outdoors

Kaya spends a large amount of time exploring the lake, meadows streams, mountains, creeks prairies that make her home in Wallowa Valley. We didn't have a horse to help us explore, but we did hike down on foot.

We learned that the Nez Perce would hunt, fish and gather wild food when Kaya was alive. We set out to find some wild bramble fruit and see if we could catch anything as fast as a minnow.

We successfully found Wineberries, a bramble berry very common in the Wissahickon that is perfectly safe to eat. We didn't taste any. I asked the girls to come back with their families for that. We did however eat blueberries when we returned to the room.

We didn't have as much luck catching any fish or any other creek creatures. Maybe next time.

Wineberries in the Wissahickon

After lunch we worked away on two projects. First we made a Nez Perce inspired anklet. The Nez Perce traditionally wore moccasins, however, that was a bit out of our time frame so the anklets worked like a charm. We also created a new sew Nez Perce dress for our dolls. We are quite proud as you can see...