Early Life

We come from the cradle of the earth.

Scott Momaday (Kiowa), 1998

Babies began to learn traditions by watching and listening to people and other things around them.A child usually spent the first year or two of life wrapped in coverlets and laced into a cradleboard.The child went everywhere the mother went.

As toddlers, they began doing - carrying dolls wrapped in doll cradleboards, "riding" stick-horses, playing with boats. When a child learned to walk, he or she was welcomed into the youngest of age-graded societies, usually named for small things, such as mosquitos and pigeons.

In the past, the women were responsible for infants and toddlers and the men were responsible for providing for the family. Today, some Native Americans use traditional ways, some have adapted to contemporary ways, and some have found a blend of each.

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