Crafts and Tools
The Iroquois used every part of their hunt and of the natural resources around them to create what they needed. They used deer jaws to scrape of dried corn into their holding baskets. They spent hours rubbing intestines and soaking animal hides in special mixes, stretching them, and smoking them so that they were tanned and supple for use as breech-clothes, leggings, tunics, mats, or drums (Kalman 24-25). Wampums, which were belts made of shell beads, were made from shells traded from far away. The Iroquois would round and sand the tiny shells with stone, and drill holes in them with tiny bone in order to string them. Each wampum told a story by the way the beads were strung, and could contain the history of the tribe or its laws (McCall 17).
Toys and Games
The most common toy for the Iroquois girls was a corn husk doll. There were also toy games made out of bowls and peach pits. One side of the peach pit was painted black, the other white. Out of six peach pits, players would take turns banging the bowl to see if they could get five of one color to be top-side up (Doherty 40). In addition to frequent dancing and singing, the Iroquois played sports like lacross and snowsnake. In lacrosse, the Iroquois used a leather ball stuff with fur and wooden nets. Sometimes they competed against other nations, and often had games between clans (Kalman 27). During the winter the children would dig a long tunnel in the snow and slide long poles into it to compete and see who could make their pole go the farthest; this was called snowsnake (Doherty 40).