Microlectures on There There

 The first micro lecture gave a lot of good context of the Native American past such as the Prologue in the novel. I learned more about the Pocahontas story and the biases that we have because the main narrative of the story was only told from the British perspective and not the Native American perspective. From the British perspective, we hear that the tribe leader wanted to kill him, but Pocahontas saved him because she was attracted to him. However, from the Native American Perspective, we learned that it was an adoption ceremony into the tribe. I learned about the different cities in the civilization of America before Columbus. The city I was most interested in was Cahokia. It was double the size of London but only housed 10-20 thousand people. There were pathways, sites of worship, buildings, courtyards, houses, and more. Based on the reconstructed image I saw, I was reminded of just how advanced Native American civilization was. 

I also learned about how they used animal skins for things such as maps, robes, belts, etc. One specific thing I found interesting was the Wampum belts. It's used as a record of past agreements within a tribe and sometimes even used to call other tribes for a meeting. Within a tribe, it can also be used to show a person’s place in the social hierarchy. The Wampum belts are made from the shell of a clam and I am interested to see the process of how a shell of a clam can become a belt.

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