March 25, 2022
White Tailed Deer

Before I get to this week's Musing from Main, I need to thank Friend's volunteer, Maria Baseel, without who last week’s Musing would not have been possible. During the summer of 2021, Maria digitized the fifth grade, Union school book from 1941, we featured, first carefully arranging the pages in proper order, and then scanning each item on our flatbed scanner.

Thank You, Maria Baseel, for helping us to fulfill our mission of making
History come Alive!

In this week's Musing from Main we turn to Nature, as Education Director, Liz Glaviano, showcases the White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus).

White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

This medium-sized deer is native to North America and played a crucial role in the survival of the region’s Indigenous Peoples. Due to their importance, White-tailed deer are a frequent topic of discussion and exploration in Nowashe Village

Top image is a Male White Tailed Deer and the lower image is a female, both images courtesy of National Park Service website.

Primary Resources

Native Peoples utilized deer for both their primary and secondary resources. Their primary resource was meat -- an excellent lean protein source. After the kill, some Native peoples would eat the heart at the kill site, whereas others practiced burying the heart at the kill site. According to Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal member and Culture Bearer, Chef Sherry Pocknett, deer heart is considered a delicacy.

Deer meat also was served at what is commonly known as the First Thanksgiving. According to Edward Winslow, “At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, and many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."

Secondary Resources

Secondary resources obtained from Deer, were numerous and invaluable. They include, but are not limited to, the following: pelts (skin with fur attached) and hides (deer-brain-tanned skin with the hair scrapped off) to make clothing, blankets, carrying pouches, drums, moccasins, and accessories. In layman’s terms, the supple hide was created by first stretching the skin on a rack and scraping, to remove any hair and remaining tissues debris. Then, the gently heated deer brain was repeatedly rubbed in to cure the skin, which would be repeatedly stretched until it was dry and supple. It then can be smoked over a smudge fire. Doing this prevents the hide from stiffening up if it gets wet. Smoking also adds the rich tan color that we call, “buckskin.”

Antlers pictured above and an awl pictured right, are both used in Nowashe Village for hands-on educational programming.

Deer secondary resources also were pronounced in adornment. In numerous North American tribal nations, men often would wear a roach, an ornament located near the crown of the head, made of dyed deer hair. Red dyed deer hair is a common feature in other adornment pieces, such as earrings, necklaces and regalia of the Eastern Woodland tribes.

Above image of a White Tailed Deer Pelt similar to the one used in Nowashe for education programs.

Antlers were fashioned into knife handles and were also used as a percussion tool in creating stems, while bones were repurposed into cooking utensils and hide-punching awls or bone needles. Indigenous Peoples also used deer sinews (connective tissues) to make cordage used for a variety of purposes, such as bow strings, sewing thread, and tool binders.

Thank You to Jane Misiek

who this past fall donated a White-tailed Deer pelt. It’s a wonderful piece that will facilitate hands-on learning and exploration in Nowashe Village. The pelt will be on display in the Sachem’s House, beginning in June 2022.

If you have artifacts or cultural items relating to Eastern Woodland People’s history you would like to donate, please contact Education Director Liz Glaviano at (860) 289-1783, ext. 4.

Sources used for this Musing are:

Bennett, M.K., “The Food Economy of the New England Indians, 1605-75” Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 63, No. 5 (Oct. 1955), pp. 369-397

https://classroom.synonym.com/the-indian-uses-of-deer-12084101.html

Dina, Jim, www.livingstoneage.com, Oral History Project, Friends of Wood Memorial Library & Museum. 2022

Lavin, Lucianne: “Connecticut’s Indigenous Peoples: What Archaeology, History, and Oral Traditions Teach Us About Their Communities and Cultures” © Yale University 2013.

Pocknett, Sherry Oral History, Friends of Wood Memorial Library & Museum. 2020.

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