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Description:
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The ninth poster in the “American Indian Heritage Month Poster” Iroquios tradition says that First Mother gave her body so the people might live. From her grew the sacred plants, corn, beans and squash. They are our sustenance. The crops were planted together on small hills. The beans would twine around the corn stalks as they grew and the broad leaves of the squash stifled the weeds. They were called the Sacred Sisters and were blessed by protective spirits, sometimes glimpsed as they rustled among the corn or shook the stems of the squash or pumpkin. The bear, wolf and turtle, traditional clans of the Oneida, represent the animals of Wisconsin, along with the deer and the heron.
The artist, Dawn Dark Mountain is a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois. Dawn belongs to the Turtle Clan. The turtle figures in all her paintings, either prominent or hidden, symbolize long life and creation.
~All of the borders and designs are based on traditional Iroquois beadwork~
American Indian Heritage Month is sponsored by the USDA, Soil Conservation Service, in association with the Ohio Valley RC&D Council and the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service. |
