Big Bear's Den 
Image of Shawnee Warrior from Osprey Men-At-Arms "American Woodland Indians" By M.G. Johnson Color Plates by R.Hook
How To Portray An Indian
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BOONESBORO VILLAGE 
CAMP DANIEL BOONE CDB VIDEO DANIEL BOONE COUNCIL
Camp Daniel Boone is a Boy Scout Camp located in the Great Smoky Mountains ~ 45 minutes west of Asheville, NC.
Being Indian today has become very popular. For more thoughts on this subject CLICK HERE.
Their are many, but most definitely not all, in the Native community that find reenacting "Indians" to be offensive. 
Their are many that even find the use of the term "Indian" offensive. While I don't agree with their point of view,
on an intellectual level, I can understand it. Like the object of many impersonators, I feel that impersonation is
the highest form of flattery if that impersonation is done well .
If you have read the Interesting Facts on the Home page, you already know my feelings on the term "Indian." In the course of
your studies,portrayals, participation in dance or Scout ceremonies, should you encounter individuals that are offended by your actions,
please do not argue with them!
Politely state that it is not your intention to offend anyone and remove yourself from the situation.
Everyone is claiming some connection to an Indian in their ancestry,
yet very few understand what it means to be Indian.
Being Indian and Portraying an Indian are two very different things.
Portraying Indians is what I am addressing here.
My own ancestry includes Shawnee, Cherokee, Scots, Irish, Scots-Irish, English, Welsh, French, German, and Dutch (& that's only what I'm sure of). Shawnee (3/16ths)
and
Cherokee (1/16th) make up 1/4 of my ancestry and the rest is evenly spread over the other origins, making me more Shawnee than anything else. Even with my abundance of Indian ancestors I still have trouble knowing what 'being Indian' is all about. I grew up in the white world; free from the prejudices and
intolerance imposed on people whose ethnicity showed more clearly. In spite of that, I have learned first hand from Indian people all over the country.
From Virginia to Arizona and Canada to Mexico, I have traveled, participated in the life and ceremony and listened to the stories of the people. I have
read accounts of both the people of the past and present and have come to know my ancestors through their words, their deeds and how others perceived them.
To portray an Indian of the 18th or early 19th century it is important to understand their way of thinking. The same is true to understand Indian dance and
ceremony for Scouting or any other purpose. Within this website I will try to introduce a few concepts to bring about some understanding.
If there is any one thing I have learned in over half a century of living around the
world, it’s that people are people. All people, everywhere and (I can only surmise)in every time, are motivated by the same things; food, shelter, clothing, health, pleasure, pain, the need to create and the need to connect with a higher power. I cannot stress anything more than the last when speaking of the traditional American Indian. I have always been struck by the inherent spirituality of tribal life. Whether American Indian, Australian Aborigines or African Bushmen, tribal people seem to be drawn closer to their environment, families (& extended families), communities and God. In reading the words of Indian leaders throughout history, it is impossible to separate their view of the world, and their place in it, without understanding their relationship with the creator of it. If you wish to think and act like an Indian, this is where you must begin and end.
Every action and reaction, every hunt and battle becomes a spiritual act. Playing ball games, cooking a meal, educating children, or any other act in life, is an extension of your spiritual life. The Earth is your Mother. In some cultures, God is Grandfather or Grandmother. In those cultures all elders are referred to as Grandfather or Grandmother. Respect and reverence for both the physical world and the spiritual world are not just concepts but are absolutes.
"When dew is on the grass in the morning, it will not rain during the day; when it is not there after darkness has fallen, it will rain before morning. When birds fly low and silently, a bad storm is coming, and when the pigeon sits close to the trunk of the sapling during daytime, a great wind will soon blow. When the leaves of the maples turn over to show their underside, thunder and lightning will soon come. If the blackbirds flock together and start to fly south when summer is still with us, there will be much snow during the winter. When the swamp muskrat builds a low house of reeds and mud, the winter will be mild, but the larger and higher the house he builds, the worse the winter will be; and when he builds no house at all, but instead burrows beneath the ground, prepare for severe cold, for the waters of swamps and ponds and smaller streams will freeze to the bottom and even the great Spaylaywitheepi (Ohio River in Shawnee) will freeze so that a horse may walk upon it." These are only a few of the truths you would have known at a very early age. You would grow up without a harsh word having ever been spoken to you. If you did something to disappoint a grown up you would most likely hear "How sad I am to know I have not taught my child better". If a woman needed wood for the fire she may say, "I wonder who has raised a child that would help a woman get fire wood?" and you would see children tripping over themselves to be the first ones back with an arm load of dried sticks.
Any kind of noise or a wrong movement could spoil a hunt or alert an enemy. Babies were fed before they began to cry for food. If they did begin to cry, they were picked up and cradled to make them stop. Infants were strapped to a cradle board from the age of one month until they could sit up by themselves, a custom that many tribes believed would make the child grow straight, strong and patient and they were bathed daily in cold water to make them hardy.
Older children learned by doing, with fathers, uncles or grandfathers instructing the boys and mothers, aunts or grandmothers instructing the girls. Girls and boys were rarely allowed to play together, but both played games to develop strength, skill, and resourcefulness. Children wrestled, fished, hunted, ran races, and played games similar to marbles and lacrosse. When boys were about nine or ten they began a special program of training to increase endurance and self-control. In some tribes, the boys would take early morning dips in the cold water of a pond or lake, breaking through the ice if necessary. As a boy entered manhood he would go out into nature to fast and seek a spirit guide what most people know as the Vision Quest. The spirit guide would usually come to the seeker in the form of an animal or bird and would give the seeker some kind of instruction that would protect them and help them in life.
A tribal elder of the Tohono O'odham (Papago) once told me "being Indian is not a condition of birth, but a state of mind."
During the earliest periods of Indian-White contact it was not unusual for Whites. and especially Blacks, to be adopted
into a tribe. Sometimes this would be the result of captivity. Sometimes it was the desire of the adoptee. Even among
the captive adoptees, when given the opportunity to return to white society, many did not wish it. Both men and
women stayed with their adopted families by choice because they had found a way of life that appealed to them.
For those of you that adopt Indian customs as ritual, like Powwow or Order of the Arrow dancing, please do so with understanding and reverence. If you are portraying an Indian of the past in an historic reenactment do so with the same understanding, reverence and ACCURACY.
(There are many more Links on my LINKS page)
OYATE A Beginners Guide to
This site deals with modern issues-
has an excellent reading and what not to read list EASTERN
WOODLAND
INDIAN
REENACTING
NATIVE LANGUAGES OF THE AMERICAS
If you are to portray someone you must look the part. If you have fair skin and light hair, do not try to pass yourself off as 100% Indian. Learn at least some of the language of the tribe you wish to represent. Again, it is a sign of respect as well as adding authenticity to your portrayal. This accuracy of look must extend to all aspects of your portrayal. Do the research. Find out how people dressed. Either purchase or produce everything you use in your portrayal with complete accuracy in materials and construction. Contact me if you need assistance in producing or purchasing an appropriate set of clothing and accroutrements. For Boy Scouts, Explorers, Venture Scouts and Scouters of all ages,
There are many ways to do research and many of them can be a lot of fun.
Go to reenactments. For the uninitiated, a reenactment is an event where participants portray people of the past. For a list of specific events involving reenacters, simply goggle reenactment events for your area. At the reenactments, ask lots of questions. “What is that?” “How did you make it?” “What’s it made of?” “What is it used for and why?” Pay careful attention to the answers. Be respectful of the person giving you their time, but never trust only one source. Check their answers with other people, books, the web and any other source you can think of. No one source or person should ever be used as your only source (including me).
Go to a Powwow. Go to many Powwows. Remember that a powwow is a modern event and has little to do with the 18th century. It does, however, have much to do with being Indian. A tremendous amount of knowledge can be gained if you obey some basic Powwow ETIQUETTE and ask lots of questions. The admonitions in the previous paragraph apply doubly at Powwows. Pay extremely close attention to people and what they say to you. Be very respectful of everyone, especially the elders. Remember that in spite of what you may have been taught, there IS such things as DUMB QUESTIONS. If you ask a question the wrong way, you could make someone very angry or at the very least, leave them with hurt feelings. POWOW POWER website also has a listing of many powwows by state.
Both Powwows and reenactments can be an excellent source of materials for your clothing. Many vendors come to the larger ones. Remember to be sure of what you are getting. For the serious reenacter PLASTIC BEADS ARE UNACCEPTABLE!
another fun study program is Boonesboro Village at Camp Daniel Boone
near Asheville, NC held each summer.
Before continuing with new information, just one more note on Powwows and etiquette. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police produced an excellent web page on the subject of "Native Spirituality" and how to deal with the special procedures involved in police work with the traditional community. It works just as well for anybody woking with the traditional community. Go to the link mentioned and read thoroughly. It is an excellent resource.
Interesting Fact- Until very recently in history it was common to refer to the Original People of the Americas as Savages. Let's examine this word.
From "Word Origins - An Exploration and History of Words and Language" Walter Funk, Random House (c) 1950.
"We move from the Latin Silva, "forest," and silvaticus, also salvaticus, "(man) of the forest," through the Old French sauvage to our word savage. The dwellers in towns looked upon the "men of the forest" as wild men and so the word savage gradually took on its present day meanings of brutality and cruelty."
Personally, if people want to call me a "man of the woods," I would take that as a great compliment.
I mentioned earlier that you should not try to pass yourself off as something you are not. For reenacters this means that if you don't look the part when "in character" don't claim to be 100% Indian. Even if you look the part, when "out of character" don't claim to be what you are not. You will almost always be found out and that will discredit your whole portrayal.
As to looking the part, one of the most important visible signs of ethnicity is skin tone. Not all Indians were real dark skinned. While the Indians were often called "Red Men" they were also described by Europeans as yellow or well tanned. Some of the Southeastern tribes are even shown in some period paintings of the 17th century and earlier as very pale. The point is, do your research and know what you should look like. If you can't make your skin look right, don't claim a pure ancestry. Almost from 1492 on, Whites and, a little later, Africans intermarried with the natives and produced multi-racial offspring.
One other very visible sign of tribal affiliation is hair. I have never found a reference to any colors of hair other than medium brown (and very little of that), to very dark brown or black. Of course the one big exception is "old" people with gray or white hair. Remember, in the 18th century old could mean anybody over forty. If you've passed that age and still want to run around in the woods playing warrior, you should be able to pass yourself off as being much younger. There were older warriors, but they were rare. Again do the research and be willing to dye your hair to an appropriate color. Also part of the hair equation is style. Hair styles did vary from tribe to tribe and from individual to individual, but not substantially. The most common among the Eastern Woodland Tribes was a shaved head except for a knot of hair on the top of the head or to the back of the crown which was cut just long enough to secure a roach or a few feathers. Again, older individuals may 
have deviated from the norm, not shaving and wearing their hair longer. Again, do the research and adapt or come up with a likely story for you being the exception.
By the early 19th century many styles of hair and clothing were changing radically and rapidly. When doing your research be very sure of the time you are portraying versus the time you are researching. From the 16th to the 19th centuries hair styles go from heavily shaved heads to no shaving at all. Clothing goes from near naked in the south and all feathers, hide, and fur as you move north to totally manufactured clothing, especially in the east near white society.
Your accoutrements would have changed over time as well. In the 16th century bow and arrows, stone and wood clubs, flint knives, and the like would be abundant. By the mid 17th century metal blades and even a few firearms could be found in any tribe close to white society. By the time of the American Revolution, virtually every tribe east of the Mississippi and more than a few to the west had just about anything that could be found in the rural communities of the White Man. The big difference comes in how the item is used. Indians tended to use an item in whatever form it was received. They would use a blanket as a cape with the only change to it in the decorations they put on it. They had no use for coins at first so they made jewelry of them. They were very fond of the white mans clothing but only their shirts and westkits (vests). Not until the missionaries began converting them did they give up their breechclouts and leggings.
Interesting Fact - When George Washington took command in the French and Indian War and again during the Revolution he gave orders that the frontier troops "should quit the practice of going about naked, give up the Indian practice of covering themselves, and wear proper breeches."
One of the specific decisions you will be making, whether it's to pick traditional dance regalia or to develop a character for reenacting, is which tribe you wish to represent. There are numerous to choose from just within the Eastern Woodland region. A few to choose from include the Abenaki (known to themselves as Alnanbal), Cherokee (Tsalagi), Delaware (Lenapi), Huron (Wendat), Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), Kickapoo, Miami (Twatwa), Ottawa (Odawa), Potawatomi (Nishnabek), Sauk and Fox (Sauk & Mesquakie), Shawnee (Shaawanooki), and Winnebago (Hochungra). Each of these links take you to First Nations Histories. If you click on the underlined name of each tribe, you will be connected to further information on each tribe. As you will quickly see, there are many more tribes on their list than on mine. This is only an introduction.
* WANTED!!!! *
* Young Person/16 plus/Male or Female For *
* “Paid Vacation” Plus All Expenses *
* 8 - 9 weeks /June 4 to ~ August 1, 2010 *
*Camp Daniel Boone near Asheville, NC. Chance to see Biltmore Estate & Cherokee*
* Must Have valid Drivers License and a RELIABLE VEHICLE *
* Truck or Van preferred but not necessary *
* Boy Scout Camp Councilor/Stroke Survivor Needs Driver/Personal Assistant *
* If you can teach an Indian Craft, much more pay is possible. *
* 
*
If you are looking for a new reenacting unit to join, consider
The Captive Corps 
A unit of Eastern Woodland Indians, their Captives and Runaways, Adoptees and Slaves.
ALL ABOUT THE SHAWNEE SHAWNEE HISTORY 2 SHAWNEE HISTORY 3
PORTRAYING INDIANS THE CAPTIVE CORPS TURTLE ISLAND
WIKTIONARY WIKIPEDIA
BOONESBORO VILLAGE CAMP DANIEL BOONE CDB VIDEO DANIEL BOONE COUNCIL
Camp Daniel Boone is a Boy Scout Camp located in the Great Smoky Mountains ~ 45 minutes west of Asheville, NC.
If for any reason the email links throughout this site do not work you may reach me by email at
shemaqua@bigbearsden.org,
snail mail me @
Shemaqua 
127 - A King Henry Way
Williamsburg, VA
23188-1903
or call me at 757.253.6999
or send up a smoke signal, use a drum, or communicate telepathically.
(I wouldn't count on those last three.)
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