My favorite part of the Jamestown Settlement was the Powhatan Village area.
D & S got a chance to dig out a canoe the Indian way. A fire smolders in the log and burnt areas are scraped out with shells. This young woman was very nice. She said this was the largest canoe yet made at the living museum. I believe she said it had taken many months to get this far in the progress. We had to drag the kids away from this.
This young woman had an audience and she explained all about Powhatan cooking. She also mentioned that many many people prefer to cook with bear fat. I believe she was cooking corn cakes.
Here are two wigwams - no teepees for the Powhatan.
Here is a view inside a wigwam. Gourds and tobacco hang from the rafters. A bed is on the bottom right. A fire area is on the bottom left. In the background, are shelves of pots and firewood. The left wall (not seen) of this wigwam had bows, arrows, and baskets.
Here is S holding a shell to be used to scrape the fur off the deer skin. Several skins were stretched in this manner around the Powhatan area and we were encouraged to help clean them.
After the Powhatan Village, we entered the visitor center where there is a great museum on Jamestown. Unfortunately, we could not linger in the museum because we were hungry and had tickets for another area of the Historic Triangle.
