Native American Day--Ideas for fun

Plan a half day excursion to Overton to visit the Lost City Museum--a great educational experience about the local Native Americans. See: http://www.sunsetcities.com/lost-city-museum.html
We added the following enrichments to our day: We had a "Hunter Gatherer" or "Anasazi" picnic. We went to the grocery store and bought "roots" (carrots, radishes, etc.), nuts, seeds (sunflower), berries, fry bread, corn, beans, etc.. Pack up the "gathered" feast and plan to enjoy it in the open air somewhere possibly where you might get another enrichment of seeing some petroglyphs (see the website for locations--some easy access ones are found at the Valley of Fire). After visiting the museum, have your kids take notice of local yucca plants on the drive home. Have them get out and feel how rough and spiky they are. Remind them of how the local tribes used to make clothes and and shoes from the yucca plants. Have them take notice of lovely pottery and jewelry at the museum while there. Plan an after museum bead and clay experience at home. Let the kids make bead jewelry from craft beads and sculpt craft clay objects, especially little pots and bowls. For added fun, let them build their own "wickiups" inside the home or in the backyard either out of traditional branches and leaves or out of pretend hard structures like a card table and blankets see: http://www.texasindians.com/wickiup.htm. My son spent hours in his wickiup with his tinker toy tools and weapons and even wanted to spend the night in his structure, which was a lot of fun for him. Our kids enjoyed the experience and remember it to this day.

DJW