Importance of trees
In olden days, the Haudenosaunee lived in a bark-covered house, and acrid their children on a cradleboard made of wood, like the 19th century Mohawk example shown here. The symbolism on the backside of the cradle board is the Bear and Beaver Clans have produced children (seen in the nest) that rests in the Tree of Life that contained bright flowers and bears nourishing berries. The blue bird was the first bird created when the world was new.
Move your cursor over the cradleboard to learn more of the importance of trees from a Haudenosaunee point of view.
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- Longhouses built of inner pole framework (usually cedar) and covered with bark (usually red elm).
- Wood provided fuel for cooking and heating our longhouses.
- Tree nuts provided a valuable nutritional supplement to our cultivated crops.
- Baby carrier is made of wood as a form of medicine for the growing child.
- Wood tools and utensils connect the user to both the task at hand and the woods from where the materials comes from.
- Sugar Maple provides the sweet water as a form of spring medicine.
- Shagbark hickory wood is used to make lacrosse sticks.
- Ironwork was used to make snowsnakes to race on top of the icy snow.
- Forests were full of game to be harvested for a variety of uses from food to clothing.