Native American Toys
Just like children nowadays kids can become bored very quickly and even thousand
of years back into history the Native American children had handcrafted Native
American toys. There were definitely not an abundance of Native American toys
among the nomadic tribes because they could usually only carry their essentials
when they had to move. Even though they did not have a lot of toys the Indian
children did have some Native American toys.
One of the very first toys the
Indian children were introduced to were when they were babies still in their
cribs. The Indian mothers would sometimes hang strings adorned with things
such as beads, teeth from an animal, and even rabbit’s feet, this gave
the babies something to do look at and play with while they were still in
their cradles. The Native American women would also make dolls out of things
like corncobs and stalks and anything else they could find. The girls would
then fashion clothing for their dolls while at the same time learning Indian
arts like bead working and weaving.
The Native American toys of the young boys were usually things like mini bow
and arrow sets, slingshots, and fishing spears and equipment. At first these
would be made for them by their fathers and then they learned to make their
own and started hunting small animals such as rabbits. Many of these Native
American toys were meant for fun but there was also a lot of learning involved
since many of these things were things they would need to know how to make in
the future. The girls learned their weaving and bead making skills while the
boys learned hot to craft weapons and use them, and also how to hunt. They did
have some toys that were just for plain old fun, one of these was a piece of
animal sinew that was attached to wood that made handles, then in the middle
of the string of sinew was a circular piece of bone, they used to use the handles
and get the ring to spin around on the sinew string. They called this a buzzer,
or at least that is what this ancient Indian toy is called now.
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