Mesa Grande

Well...we tried having a fun~filled entertaining day, last Saturday. It's a bit difficult with a hard-to-please 2 year old, though.

First thing in the morning we went to tour a large Hohokam temple mound including prehistoric technology demonstrations and games for the children. Sponsored by Mesa Southwest Museum, city of Mesa, Mesa Grande Neighborhood Alliance, and the Southwest Archaeology Team (SWAT). They also gave us a free pancake breakfast.

Basically there were a couple mounds of dirt. LOL. The interesting part of the visit was the re-enactment activities that they had available. I sure wish we would have remembered the camera.

There were miniaturized adobe huts that they had made, to depict the type of dwelling early Native American's lived in. Then the kids were able to make little clay bowls (more like tiny tea-cup size) which we dried in the sun once we got home. They also each made bricks. Scooping and pressing a mixture of clay and sand (adobe) into a wooden form.

A couple of other activities were throwing boomerang like sticks at rabbit forms. I guess using boomerangs was one way to get smaller game for food. Throwing arrows from a stick looked really interesting. There is a name for it, but I can't remember, right now. something like balla-balla. Also we got to try a wooden drill, to drill into a small shape of wood, or a shell. Of course this wooden drill wasn't much like what they used to use. They used a dowel, a nail on the end, and type of paddle with string attached to 'pump' up and down to create the 'drill' effect.

I think it would be neat to learn more about some of these activities. My cub scout boys would love it. We are actually going to be having the theme on Native Americans this coming fall.