The biting insect question is of particular interest to me, as I study ethnoentomology and ethnobotany in the southern US. Here's what I've learned so far: oil from hickory and walnuts was applied to the body by Iroquois to ward off mosquitos. Now I wonder if some conifer was extracted into this as well. Alligator oil was applied to the body by the Atákapa to deter mosquitoes and gnats. Artemisia was used by Hidatsa to smoke out their houses to deter mosquitos. The Quapaw built platforms 15 to 20 feet high upon which they slept in order to evade the biting insects. Mosquitoes occurring in severe swarms were driven away by the Atákapa with brush fires. In the Southeast, American beautyberry has a history of folk use as a mosquito deterrent, and modern research affirms its efficacy. Many southern folk uses originate from American Indian practices, but I don't know about this one. The Comanche also used white, gray, or yellow clay to clean buckskin and moccasins. They scraped the buckskin with a bone tool first, rubbed in clay with a little water, then hung it up to dry. The excess clay was removed when dried. You are my favorite KZread channel, and I admire everything you do, so thank you.

I heard a story - it's likely apocryphal but might be instructive - that there was a tribe in Montana (likely Apsáalooke) who had some kind of taboo about a certain stretch of woodland. Supposedly they thought it was infested by bad spirits or otherwise cursed during certain seasons, and supposedly this was later found to be due the ticks in that area that were found to be carriers of a bacteria that was/is pretty awful. So maybe this could be a simple exposure-mitigation strategy: these areas are bad to go into during certain seasons, stay away. But I think - having grown up in tick infested areas - that the more likely strategy was that you just become more aware of ticks crawling on you plus emphasize grooming (combs are practical tools for removing parasites in your hair).

@MangasColoradas941

11 ай бұрын

Westerners typically look down on superstition, but superstition evolved into practical knowledge once we knew *why* things were taboo. I don't like down on superstition anymore.

@OddoFelacio

11 ай бұрын

ive wondered if that was the origin behind tobacco, cedar and other herbs used for smoke. Nicotine is a pesticide and ceder isnt eaten by termites and repels moths

@Louiscare

10 ай бұрын

​@@OddoFelacioticks also hate smoke. Plus burnings would keep the tick population in check. I think the ecosystem before industrialisation and invasive species would manage tick populations much better.

As to toilets. My grandma was oneida but wasn’t raised (residential school) by her people. Still when we went camping she would find what she called a chamber log (instead of chamber pot). A hollowed out stump you can sit on with a piece of bark to cover the hole. Would not leave much trace and could even be portable for night time use

@nokomarie1963

11 ай бұрын

As a camper, that is a great idea!

Love the dry humor. The ending had me laughing aloud. (Lol)

Question. Are any of those stories about natives hearing about European explorers before they showed up documented anywhere? I'd love to read up on them if I can.

@MalcolmPL

11 ай бұрын

Not, that I know of. They're not really stories in the proper sense, just one of those things that people say which may or may not be true.

@AncientAmericas

11 ай бұрын

@@MalcolmPL Got it! Thanks for the reply!

From western Canada: Controlled burns in spring are excellent for suppressing the tick population. That wasn't the main point of controlled burns, it was to spur new plant growth for game animals to eat but it worked well on ticks regardless

12:55 I think Days Gone somewhat has that, where your character and the survivor camps rely on each other throughout the story. It's not really a survival game, but in the narrative there's a lot of importance placed on the camps, on how our individual actions affect others, and on how different people work together for different reasons. And it explores the different 'societies' of these camps in the process. Some are strange, some are good, some are misguided, and some are evil. The evil camp can't be helped in any way though, they are a cult that forcibly kidnap and torture people into conversion, but their part of the story is actually about how our personal choices affect more than just us.

4:18 Hello. In a book from the 1950 I have read, that was a fictional story taking place around 1750 somewhere between the Lake Erie and the Ohio river about an English boy stolen by Iroquois people to live with them, these people got their salt by boiling down a lot of salty water they got from a particular salty creek. The people had to travel for several days to get to the creek and whole the affair took up to two weeks as they had to collect a lot of firewood prior to the actual cooking of salt. They did this yearly. The result was said to be yellowish grains of salt that they, understandably, valued quite high. In the story this salt was added sparingly only to the food prepared for the father of the boy’s adoptive family and other adult men. The book was a story for children called “Blauvogel, Wahlsohn der Irokesen” written by an German author Anna Jürgen. Watching your videos I remembered this book which I read several times when young. It contains many details of the life of the Iroquois people that are pretty consistent with what you describe in your videos and that is the only reason why I mention it at all. You decide if this info can be relevant for you in any way.

Thank you so much for making this channel! Do you have any other resources you'd recommend for learning more about the Haudenosaunee?

You just answered many questions I didn't even think of asking. I would give you two thumbs up (at least) if KZread allowed it.

One of the few channels I leave notifications on for. Great video as usual.

Your first pronunciation of Fylgja was correct.

I love the survival game idea. I hope it gets traction.

Thank you for recovering and recording so much of our long ago almost forgotten history and culture . Your re-creation and actual usage of various implements helps to visualize and confirm or deny many myths and legends of the past. Much has been lost but also much has been saved, diligent research and actual work has brought many historical gems back into the limelight for us to marvel at and admire at our ancestors ingenuity and perseverance to adapt and conform their environment and live in their times. Many of their discoveries are as useful today as they were in the 15th to 19th centuries. One of the internet's positive contributions to our times is the ability of channels like this one to distribute this knowledge to a wide audience of many peoples, not just First Nations -- greater knowledge and understanding that can lead to a better future for all. Once again, thank you for all your work and Good Luck in all you do.

I know there is a stealth survival game called This Land is My Land but it didnt have any native american staff on its development team.

All very interesting stuff! I’m curious if the reason longhouses were phased out in favor of log cabins was due to social pressures from white settlers to assimilate, or if perhaps the longhouse design is just less efficient for a small single-family dwelling compared to a log cabin. It could be a combination of reasons I suppose.

@MalcolmPL

11 ай бұрын

Yes, the former.

5:52 I imagine armor might have been past down through generations Kinda like how some Japanese people have family armor because it was passed down I imagine this is how people got their armor in most cases to account for time and cost requirements We stopped passing war items down through the family because families became more individual and less communal And also because a lot of it became obsolete This is just a theory and I have no real evidence for it but imo it sounds plausible. Things might break down or get broken during battle and that stuff would get replaced if the cost was too great for repairing it.

Wonderful. Thanks.

Always a delight to have you upload.

great stuff

I love the content! super interesting and enlightening.

Ha. You answered a bunch of my own queries. Thank you yet again.

Very excited to watch this. Always happy to see a new upload.

@cyrusposting

11 ай бұрын

I like what you said about survival games about the survival of a community. Red Dead 2 made a vague disappointing gesture at this with the idea that you can give money to your camp, but from what I could tell nothing seemed to happen when you don't. Metro: Exodus also has some gestures towards this, but mainly through small narrative things. It doesn't flesh out into a full blown mechanic, the survival mechanics only affect the player character. This War of Mine is as close as I can think of to a survival game that does this well, but its also more like an RTS game, and you don't control a singular character who has to work as part of a community. You just control the whole community. Pathologic is another interesting case study but that game is impossible to talk about. It seems like an interesting way to stagger failstates. Instead of "your hunger meter filled up, you lose! try again!" its more interesting to say "everyone is cold because you didn't get enough firewood, and you just have to live with that now. keep playing and try to fix it". A lot of games give you an option for instance to give a gold coin or some other resource to a person in need, and its an interesting thing to look at ideologically in games about resource management. It rubs me the wrong way a lot of the time, and I think part of that is that the motivation of a player who gives away the gold coin is to run up the score. The player isn't invited to imagine themselves as the person who needs a coin, and the game and the mechanics are not interested in letting you contribute to a community or enrich the people around you. Its just a way to let you feel good about all the stuff you've collected. Rambling aside, thank you for answering my question and I really enjoyed the video.

The function of nerve cells requires both sodium and potassium. One increases the positive charge on the inside of the cell, when the channels open to let it pass through the cell membrane, and the other flows the opposite direction when its channels open, increasing positive charge on the outside. They don't substitute for each other. The amount of sodium you need to eat depends on two things: how much you're losing (mostly in sweat and urine), and how much your blood volume has to increase as you acclimate to hot weather. If hot weather begins suddenly, you need more sodium. If the change in temperature is gradual through the spring and early summer, you don't need as much.

Wow, amazing that they were able to travel so far. I believe it 100% though, If I recall the Mckenzie expeditions with the hudsons bay co followed a very similar path when trading beaver. I have also heard an account from a french trapper in either Louisianna or Missouri relaying a story of a native man who traveled from the southern US all the way up to the Canadian martimes. The man returned to the southern US and later traveled to the PNW following a similar trail to Lewis and Clark! (If anybody elses has heard of this I would love a source/link)

@thewuurm

11 ай бұрын

His name (at least according to the stories!) was Moncacht Apé, and the channel Ancient Americas has a fantastic deep dive video on his story: kzread.info/dash/bejne/aWiqupOBmprNiag.html

@coleholt1223

11 ай бұрын

@@thewuurm Thats him! what an incredible story!

@asmodiusjones9563

10 ай бұрын

For this topic I recommend “The Dawn of Everything” by David Graeber and David Wengrow. The Americas had vast trade networks comparable to the Silk Road. Besides that, why wouldn’t you go on an adventure across hundreds or thousands of miles? People did stuff like that just for the hell of it too.

Have you thought of doing more food/cooking related videos? I thought the maple syrup one was pretty interesting, showing ways it might have been done back in the day with the tools and methods they had.

As somebody who has worked a lot in the woods of northern mid-west US, I suspect the answer to how ticks were dealt with is just by occasionally taking them off, and maybe getting a quick check from a confidant if you're unsure. I've pulled hundreds off my skin over my time but I can't remember the last time one got dug in.

A Fylgja (literal translation "to accompany") was some sort of animal spirit, the term also can mean afterbirth so there is some association there. The animal would generally correspond to the person's personality ( a cunning fox, a strong bear, etc.). They also can show up at a person's death. Usually seen by someone else. There's basically nothing else known, they appear sometimes in sagas but arent explained, and never appear in the mythology that we still have. In general, there's a noticeable attempt to take the noble savage stereotypes placed on indigenous people of the americas and slap them directly onto "vikings" so white people can still continue to have this idea of some wild men running naked and primitive or whatever (and claim it as their "viking heritage") But the stereotypes are just as inaccurate on them as on anyone else.

@Dresdentrumpet

11 ай бұрын

Do you think the vikings were just wild people running around naked?

@codycarter5902

11 ай бұрын

@@Dresdentrumpet no, thats specifically the point I was making. That they WERENT like that. But in the last 10-15 years its become popular to make viking age norse people out to be a "noble savage" caricature. As people who were wild and took drugs and talked to rocks and stuff

@chrisbarrett8377

11 ай бұрын

Would you care to cite an example? Because I'm having a hard time following your thought process

@codycarter5902

11 ай бұрын

@@chrisbarrett8377 the tv vikings is a good example. Im a viking age reenactor so I'm certainly exposed to it more though. Guys saying they took a dna test and have "viking dna (almost certainly just means they saw it say 2% norwegian or something) and are "viking pagans following the old ways" with tattoos they got off google images of "magical runes" that say gibberish and nonsensical fake sigils. Google image search viking and you get dudes covered in dirt wearing random scraps of leather and tattered burlap sacs (completely unlike historic viking age clothing) The idea most people have of """viking culture""" is complete fantasy and usually depicts norse people as savage barbarians or noble but primitive people. Neither of which is true

this war of mine is supposed to be billed as this kind of base building strategy survival game in the midst of war but not glorifying it in a way that does sound interesting. Thanks for posting!

There's archaeological evidence of Corn somewhere far from the southwest, but i can't remember specifically where. It's a good sign that people traded far and wide in the Americas. Edit: I've been working on a story based in a precontact 'settlement' of the Nde and I've done a lot of that mundanity. Things that are just apart of the culture are just portrayed as such. I don't bother explaining besides the bare minimum, like explaining what a Nale is or the sponsor of a puberty rite because otherwise the story would just be confusing.

Thanks for sharing, have you heard of Eu4?

Hey regarding the fact about where people got salt, I think the fact that they didn’t use salt was the fact that they had access to clean river water and natural “spring” water has a good amount of electrolytes.That’s just my theory. I may be wrong though on whether they had access to river water for drinking, correct me if I’m wrong.

I don't mean to add anymore video game talk but Dawn of Man is one of my favorite games. Relatively simple and only somewhat difficult at times. It is an RTS but you pretty much help along a group of Ice Age humans and their descendants into the early Iron Age. My favorite part of the long process is the beginning. PS4 If anyone here enjoys these videos and plays video games, you'll probably enjoy Dawn of Man

Have you read “Into Mohawk Country By Harmen Van Den Bogaert”? It’s the journals of a Dutch Trader who sets off into Mohawk territory in 1634. In two separate villages he encounters "pet bears" they kept in pens to fatten up. He describes one of the bears as quite friendly. I found this incredibly interesting having never heard of it, and I’ve tried to research this online and have found absolutely nothing. Do you happen to know anything about this?

@MalcolmPL

2 ай бұрын

Yeah, I read that a couple years ago. On the animals, I don't have any references off the top of my head but going from memory, the practice was that if a mother animal was killed by mistake the young would be taken and raised in a pen in the village, fed on scraps. Sometimes to be kept as an emergency food source, sometimes just kept as pets. I've heard of a variety of animals being kept like this. Bears, deer, raccoons.

@TargonStudios

2 ай бұрын

@@MalcolmPL That is very interesting, thank you for the information! I've never read or heard anything like this for any North American Indigenous group. If you happen to find or remember any references I would love to see them, I can't find anything online about it. Do you think you would ever make a video on this?

Hello mister I find you extremely informative and I love your videos. There’s a specific quote of yours involving historical plausibility, which has been extremely helpful to me. I’d like to respectfully quote you in a book I’m working on, I could just put it like it is as your name on KZread, Malcolm P.L. or I could write it out fully. It’s up to you if you even see this comment.

@MalcolmPL

11 ай бұрын

Sure, Malcolm P.L. is fine.

The urine one is tricky

Question for the next "SQSA/SASQ", in larger villages consisting of hundreds of individuals like you've spoken about before that move about every century or so, how may deer do you suppose on average were harvested each year? I'm curious because of the large amounts of uses for buckskin, sinew and of course, meat. They used a lot of it for clothing, cordage, and food, but how much for such a large community?

Any books/reading you'd really recommend?

Do you think you will cover some historical Iroquois figures? like Joseph Brant? maybe a ten minute or twenty minute video on the guy? or some other lesser known figure in Iroquois history? or perhaps how Christianity mixed into the Iroquois along with older belief systems? eh either way I love your history videos

@MalcolmPL

11 ай бұрын

I might at some point if I find I have something to say, but I don't really subscribe to an individualist model of history.

@Ian-mo1vg

11 ай бұрын

@@MalcolmPL I find im sorta in a leaning both ways sort, I sometimes find trends and forces more appealing, but then sometimes I look and see it appearing like the course of history can be changed over thanks to a talented individual.

Fewer mosquitoes.

Hey Malcolm, are you aware of the source for the Iroquian canoe in BC?

@MalcolmPL

11 ай бұрын

I got it from Walter Hough, 1895. "Primitive american armor" He cites Adrien Gabriel Morice, "Proceedings of the Canadian Institute. 1889." Page 131. archive.org/details/proceedingscana00instgoog/page/130/mode/2up Digging back to try and verify, and I have to say, it is not a very good source.

The salt was primarily for food preservation rather than taste and nutrition. Perhaps native people smoked meat to preserve rather than use salt?

Tics: an important thing to remember is that diseases spread by biting bugs are less dangerous in biodiverse areas. Diseases require 'competent hosts'. Many tic borne diseases live in cattle and sheep. West Nile Virus lives in robins and crows, but few other birds. So its quite possible that in the past, some groups saw tics as merely annoying, rather than dangerous.

@susanb4816

11 ай бұрын

There was a lot of malaria pre ww2

@KartarNighthawk

11 ай бұрын

​@@susanb4816Malaria is carried by mosquitoes and isn't native to the Americas. Like yellow fever it came over with the slave trade.

@pavarottiaardvark3431

11 ай бұрын

@@susanb4816 ... ok... that IS somewhat recent though. I'm thinking more pre 1492

@susanb4816

11 ай бұрын

@@pavarottiaardvark3431 the eradication was recent ( though malaria is making a comeback) but malaria was here before contact

@phunkracy

11 ай бұрын

if you remove ticks quickly enough, they aren't likely to transmit disease. hence personal hygiene and grooming are important. usually you can spot any tick on you within day which is fine.

Very interesting. I’ve got a question to add: Why don’t you think tomatoes, potatoes, quinoa or peppers ever made it to the Haudenosaunee (Or really any group in North America)? Maize made it all the way up from Mexico, why not any other crop? They grow perfectly fine in the Great Lakes region today. I thought maybe they were just comfortable with the crops they had, but if I remember correctly when Europeans brought those crops to NA they grew and ate them. I suppose they are softer vegetables and don’t last nearly as long as corn, so not as good to trade/move long distances (though that doesn’t rule out quinoa, and the seeds could still be traded). I’m curious to hear your opinion on this subject if you have any. I've always felt pre-Colombian trade doesn't get nearly enough credit with the extent items moved.

@MalcolmPL

11 ай бұрын

I've seen some evidence for potatoes and yams, but I haven't examined it enough to say with authority. For the others, I've seen nothing to suggest that.

@TargonStudios

11 ай бұрын

@@MalcolmPL Interesting, I've never heard of that. Do you happen to recall where you saw that?

@MalcolmPL

11 ай бұрын

@@TargonStudios I don't recall where specifically, but it was a reference to a sweet potato clan who went extinct in the 1600s.

@TargonStudios

11 ай бұрын

@@MalcolmPL It's interesting you specifically mention the sweet potato. There's strong evidence that the Polynesians made contact with South America around 1200 CE and took the sweet potato with them. Not sure where this clan your referencing is located, more than likely purely coincidental/completely unrelated. Just the first thing that came to mind

I'm a game dev and I've been concepting a survival game based on community and trust for quite a few years now. I've always been a bit bored with the constant dog-eat-dog game loop of basically every survival game. If I ever get around to prototyping it I'd love to talk with you and get some input :)

@dkkskshsjsl

11 ай бұрын

Few decent games in this genre. If you have any questions, please ask.

Also, of note, mosquitos that feed on people are post colonization. They're from Africa. There were definitely biting insects. But pre-colonial Native Americans didnt have to worry about mosquitos.

@MalcolmPL

10 ай бұрын

That is incorrect. There are a lot of different species of mosquito, some were introduced, but others are native.

I have a question for you, would you like to be involved in a film project with an actual budget whose subject matter is very much in line with your content? Serious offer.

What's your opinion on Reservation Dogs?

@MalcolmPL

11 ай бұрын

1st season is mostly pretty good, didn't like the 2nd. Gary Farmer is entertaining as always.

Do you think the increased population density in the 17th century exacerbated the problems with disease they had during that time period?

@MalcolmPL

11 ай бұрын

The really major epidemics came before the population contraction.

@9:30 i like the insult shouted in your last video about border dispute "yeah, you! Dick fingers!"

Hey bro, I'm from Akwesasne/the 6, living outside TY now, and a bit of a budding game dev. If you ever wanna give me a hand with a haud stardew clone, hit me up

I have a question for you, what psychedelics and/or intoxicants did the Iroquois take? As far as I know most humans have had some form of mind-altering substance either in religious or recreational use form. Those that didn't hated everybody.

@MalcolmPL

11 ай бұрын

No psychedelics besides tobacco if that even counts. A clear mind is part of the primary virtue, intentionally taking something that makes you stupid/delirious/insensible was viewed as irresponsible.

@earlyriser438

11 ай бұрын

​@@MalcolmPL, recreational drug use is much different from medicine. There are many hallucinogens in our pantry.

@samurguybriyongtan146

11 ай бұрын

Did you make the wood burnt art?

I hate the assumption "We dont quite know how they managed their waste so they must've not managed it" I think that's really dumb and lacks any empathy.

using clay to wash clothes is genius; clay contains natural surfactants, which will help remove both oils and water-soluble stains. my question is: what about wood ash soap? ash (specifically the basic compounds in ash) mixed with water and fat will react and produce soap spontaneously. this is pretty easy to do on accident (especially when cleaning cookware used to cook over an open fire). but, i am not sure if it would ruin leather clothes. do you know if native people used this technique?

I have a question for you, are you a star trek fan or a star wars fan

@MalcolmPL

11 ай бұрын

I'm not a fan of anything. But a significant chunk of star trek, (even the better series) is just dreadful.

This game fascinates me: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnReal_World It’s set in Iron Age Finland. Very embedded. in it place. The UI is awful and antiquated, but given the games pedigree understandable. I feel it has less focus on community than self, but it’s focused on living a survival based life, not being some great warrior