Plymouth

Native American postcards end up all over the globe; this card was received in trade from Germany and features a recreation event that can be seen at Plymouth Plantation, a living history museum that tells of an early English colony in the US. In addition to exploring English colonialism the plantation also shows life ways for the Wampanoag people who hunted, fished and grew garden crops. An interpreter demonstrates the making of a dug out canoe in which the middle of a log is burned out.

Wampanoag people were adversely affected by the English; there was conflict over land and resources plus native people died from disease. Many were captured and sold into slavery for the plantations in the Caribbean. Tribal members retained a small amount of their lands and today have state recognition; enrollment has increased and they continue to assert their identity and treaty rights.

more fun tags

I added my name to a US/Canada tag on Postcrossing and received a First Nations Cree man from the province of Alberta. Funny, the sender grew up just a few miles from where I live now...she comes home each year and so one day I may actually meet her in person!

There are many groups of Cree people; those in Alberta lived on the northern plains. Historically they would have hunted and traded with Metis (native people mixed with French).


Another tag features late prehistoric Puebloan pottery (1100-1300AD) in a form referred to as a Stirrup canteen

This postcrosser offered some interesting comments on Chief Moses, discusses in an earlier post.

a clash of cultures

I am fortunate to receive cards from Central and South America from time to time! This card was sent from Brazil by a Postcrosser in an exchange; I will share her other cards with my students but this one was for me. The text is all in Portuguese but I can get the general impression: the arrival of Europeans in 1500.

Desembarque de Pedro Alvares Cabral em Porto Seguro em 1500
Oslo de Oscar Pereira da Silva (1867-1939)

like other contact situations, Native people in Brazil were affected by European diseases, were enslaved, killed if they resisted, and their lands taken for the extraction of natural resources. They continue to press for their rights to land, protection, medical care and the continuity of cultural traditions.

Tags!

I have begun to explore the tag forum on Postcrossing....users post their name and in some cases wishes, then another user tags them and sends something nice. Here are 2 cards that came a few weeks ago but have waited patiently to be listed:

 This super lovely heron was painted by a Canadian Fist Nation artist: Paul Windsor, Haisla, Heiltsuk. He is just 32, lives in Vancouver and is an illustrator of books as well. Such a pretty card.

Heline, a Canadian who now lives down in Austin Texas, sent me this lovely photo of a Ute woman and child in a cradleboard taken in 1900. Utes lived a tough life in the Basin, interacting with southwestern, southern plains and mountain tribes.