Blog Post #4

Kaylen Kozlowski

Professor Melissa Santos

16 February 2018

Blog Post #4

This week we had the opportunity to make corn husk dolls in class. I found this activity very interesting and connected to the different aspect of Braiding Sweetgrass. While doing this activity we were able to see how native people made these dolls. While we were making the dolls, the woman had told us different characteristics that the doll may have depending on the person who made them. She explained how the native people made the dolls either boys or girls and how they very put any faces on the dolls. When she said that the dolls never had faces I was confused at first but then she went on to say that the native people didn’t put faces on the dolls because they wanted the children to have their own idea of what they should look like, not a set principle of how they should look.

As a preschool teacher, in the classroom we are always doing hands-on activities with the different themes of projects. The children in the class find the hands-on activities more interesting and entertaining. As we were making the corn husk dolls in class I became more interested in the novel Braiding Sweetgrass because it gave us the opportunity to experience one of the activities that the native people do. Another aspect of the corn husk of the dolls is connection with the native children and the corn husk dolls and the current-day children and Barbie dolls. The Barbie dolls give children an image on how “they should look” but the cornhusk dolls give the native children the ability to create their own image on they should like. In opinion, the corn husk give children more opportunities to use their creativity.