Although the Zunis are renowned horticulturists, deer hunting was a ritual activity conducted on a communal and individual level. Deerskin was often used for moccasins, full-length dresses and bedding. Deerskin with hair was placed under saddles, and scraped fine, could be used for writing on or as medicine pouches. During ceremonial dances, women wore a white wrap of deerskin on their shins known as puttee.
Prayer meal is usually cornmeal, which is used by various Native American peoples in the Southwestern parts of the U.S. as a sacred offering to the spirits in a wide range of traditional ceremonies. Cornmeal, carried in small baskets or pouches, can be used in sand painting, and also sprinkled over a site, a person, or an animal that needs blessing or healing. The offering of prayer meal is a common feature in many celebrations, ceremonials, and hunting rituals, but can also be utilized in personal daily spiritual practices.
The Ute are a Native American group living in southern Colorado, northern New Mexico, and eastern Utah, a state which is named after them. The name Ute means "land of the sun." They speak the Ute language, which belongs to the Numic branch of Uto-Aztecan language family, suggesting a connection between the Ute tribes and other indigenous groups found throughout what is now northern and central Mexico. The Ute were known to be expert horsemen and hunters; however, prior to European, specifically Spanish, contact, they primarily lived by collecting plants and other wild foods. The Ute have been considered traditional enemies of the Navajo, as well as other tribes in the U.S. Southwest, because of their practice of capturing women and children and then selling them to European settlers and other indigenous groups as slaves. Today, the Ute are found in three distinct groups on three separate reservations: the Uintah-Ouray Ute in Utah, the Ute Mountain Ute along the Colorado-New Mexico border, and the Southern Ute.
An effigy is a three-dimensional model or sculpture of a particular person or creature. Effigies crudely represent prominent features of a hated person and are sometimes publicly burned as a an expression of protest.
In many indigenous cultures throughout the Americas, cornmeal is used as a prayer offering. In Zuni culture, for example, the meal is sprinkled over corn planted at each of the four cardinal directions. Before leaving to plant, a husband and his water container will be sprinkled with meal to symbolize the blessings of rain.
A family of insects with over 20,000 species that relies entirely on pollen and nectar from flowers as its food source. As bees transport themselves from flower to flower, pollen clings to the feathered hairs of the bee and is deposited on other plants, allowing for cross-pollination. Male bees do not live very long, do not collect pollen, and do not assist with feeding and provisions for the young.
Use of neonicotinoids, insecticides carrying nicotene, is severely threatening all bees and causing the disruption of navigation patterns, reproductive ability and the destruction of natural habitat.
An eight-legged air-breathing anthropod that can inject venom or weave silk webs for ensnaring their prey. Spiders spin webs from glands on their abdomens. Female spiders are generally significantly larger than the males. With a strong sense of touch and sight, spiders are distinguished from other insects by having eight, rather than six legs, and a body segmented into two parts instead of three. There are over 40,000 species of spider, they live on every continent but Antarctica and all but one species are predatory meat-eaters. Spiders migrate via a technique called ballooning, where longs strands of silk carry them on the wind. Fascinating creatures, spiders have the capability of amputating their own legs, and shorter legs will grow in their place.
Dung beetles feed almost exclusively on manure and navigate using the stars of the Milky Way. Some dung beetles burrow or tunnel and some simply live in dung. The behavior is common to many families of beetles.
For the Navajo or Diné, beetles, along with ants, dragonflies, bats and frogs, came into being during the First World or Dark World.
One of the many kinds of Zuni breadstuffs referenced by the ethnologist Frank Cushing. In the early days, sweet mush was made with corn and sweetened with juniper. The corn meal was mixed with water and the paste spread onto husks and then covered with a heavy stone to be baked in a sealed hearth all night. Dried flowers and wild honey were also used as sweeteners.
A round-shaped flatbread made of finely-ground wheat or corn. Traditionally, the corn was ground on a metate after being boiled with lime. Patted into thin disks, the tortillas were then baked on a comale. Tortillas accompany most Mexican dishes.