Woodland Cultural Centre

6 days ago

Woodland Cultural Centre
Artifacts have the power to evoke intense emotions and provoke deep reflection. One such artifact in the collection of the Woodland Cultural Centre is a sucking tube, an object that is profoundly moving. Made from hollow deer bone or trumpeter swan bone, sucking tubes are commonly found at Neutral Iroquoian archaeological sites dating to the 1600s.What circumstances made these objects so prevalent during that time? Devastating smallpox and measles epidemics that swept through Eastern Woodland nations. These diseases, introduced from Europe, were unknown to Indigenous populations, who had no immunity, no effective medicines, and no choice but to rely on only their spiritual healing practices. Medicine people used sucking tubes in an effort to draw illness out of afflicted individuals, in accordance with these beliefs.The epidemics spared no one, whether young or old, strong or weak. Communities suffered enormous losses in rapid succession. Matriarchs, chiefs, warriors, hunters, spiritual leaders, medicine people, and children could all perish within hours. In their desperation, medicine people continued to use the tubes in hopes of removing the evil causing the illness, unaware that they were likely inhaling and spreading the virus further from one person and household to the next.Those who survived were left in a world forever changed. Disease and warfare decimated the Neutral nation, which ceased to exist by 1651. However, survivors were absorbed into the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, allowing Neutral genetics to endure within the Haudenosaunee of today.Photo caption: Sucking tube, deer leg bone, Neutral Iroquoian site, early 1600s, Collection of the Woodland Cultural Centre#WoodlandCulturalCentre #indigenous #IndigenousVoices #indigenousart #IndigenousLanguages #firstnations #IndigenousKnowledge #indigenousculture #brantford #giving #sixnations #education #IndigenousHistory #collections ... See MoreSee Less

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