craigdailypress.com

Take a step back in time, about a thousand years or so, to Atl-Atl land. Pronounced attel-attel that's code language among some Craig Middle School students for Ancient Tribal Life.
CMS seventh graders took a field trip recently and landed smack-dab in the middle of a hands-on adventure they won't soon forget.
"We got to step into the ancient life of the Ute tribal people," student Katie Gainor said.
The field trip was the brainchild of three Middle School teachers, Steve Ghirardelli, life sciences; Sharon Skwarek, social studies; and Sam Johnson, language arts. The program was designed as a team teaching experience. The three wanted to lay the groundwork for an understanding of ancient culture, made relevant to the students' daily life as seen through the different educational disciplines.
"To coin a phrase, we wanted to create an understanding of place," Johnson said.
"Before we went, we thought it was easy living in those times," student Tara Dilldine said. "But the kids then had a lot of responsibility and a lot of work to do every day."
"It wasn't like you could just go to McDonald's and eat," student Jeremy Rollins said. "They didn't have a lot of stuff, they had to make everything."
The living history project took place on a piece of land off County Road 17, owned by Jan Roth and Gary Collins. Educators in their own right, the two are former owners of the Sundance Research Institute and assisted with the learning stations set up on the field trip.
"They have really helped the educational community in Craig, and we want to thank them immensely for opening their land up to us and the students for this," Ghirardelli said.
The students spent 45 minutes at each of six stations Wikiup construction, sweatlodge construction, Atl-Atl throw, flint knapping, cooking, and petroglyphs.
Eric Wellman, student, liked flint knapping the best.
"The Utes used a piece of deer antler to make a stone knife," he said.
Traditionally, the women in a tribe have gravitated toward cooking responsibilities. Maybe that's why student Katie Gainor liked the "deerslay" part the best.
"I just liked cutting the meat off and getting all bloody," she said. "I don't like the hunting part, though."
The students didn't eat the donated meat, Tara Dilldine said.
"There is an old saying that if you kill something you have to take a bite out of its heart because it gave its life so you could live," she said.
To make a meal, keep warm or "heat up the tea," Native Americans had to make a fire from scratch not the scratch of a match, but scratch. They would make a depression in the earth, fill it with tinder, and spark a fire by rubbing wood together. On the field trip, students cooked on hot rocks.
The Ute taught the early settlers how to make foods from Maize (corn), including corn bread, popcorn, hominy and succotash.
"The corn meal we made tasted gritty, like sand," Rollins said.
The experiential trip was actually a living, learning class. When participants returned to school the next day, Ghirardelli had them write creatively about what their day was like. In Skwarek's class, they talked about how place, location and geography affect cultures. In Johnson's class, students reflected on the art and science of flint knapping, making primitive weapons, the qualities of rocks and minerals, and the different plant families.
The students enjoyed the learning experience and want to go back next year for a whole weekend, not just one day.
"It was one of the most fun days I've had in school," Johnson said. "I wish we could do it all the time."
"It was wonderful," Skwarek said. "We got to see the kids in a new environment. Some of them had changed behavior after that. They opened up and I feel more like a mentor instead of a teacher now."
"In the classroom, there is somewhat of a distance we're the teachers, they're the students," Ghirardelli said. "But that all changed. It was like we were all one tribe out there, working together for the common good as a tribe."
"It was way better than coming to school," Rollins said.
It's hard to tell who's more excited about the possibility of more learning field trips, the students or the teachers. Johnson leaned forward in his chair, cradling in his big hands the heavy rock he'd carved with a primitive tool in the flint knapping session.
"We want to create an occupational floor," he said, his eyes bright with the hunger of a learner. "A dirt floor covered with ancient seeds, charcoal, pottery chips, paintings ..."
And so there shall be, gauging from the brightness in all of their faces.