Imagine it’s the summer of the year 1500. You live in a village in what will one day be the state of New York.
Your people are called the Kanienkehaka (kun-yen-kay-HA-ka). European settlers will one day call your people the Mohawk. There are no supermarkets or malls here. You get everything you need from nature. From the forest, you get wood. You use the wood for cooking and making homes, canoes, and tools. The men hunt animals in the woods. Deer provide meat, skins for clothing, and bones and antlers for making tools. Women gather wild plants for food and medicine.
Life changes with the seasons. Because it’s summer, you spend the days helping your mom. You help with farming and gathering berries and plants near the village. In winter, you might help with chores like weaving baskets or making snowshoes.