Elementary students take a look at life in colonial Virginia

By Denice Thibodeau

Published: April 17, 2008

Students in six Danville elementary schools will take a look at life during colonial time this month through visits from the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, the state agency that administers Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center history museums.

The presentations began Wednesday, with Amy Dill’s second-grade class at G.L.H. Johnson Elementary school taking part in “Living with the Indians,” presented by Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation instructor Dirk Prince.

“We’re going to take a look at artifacts today,” he told the students. “An artifact is anything at all that somebody made and used a long time ago.”

Throughout the presentation, students were able to handle various tools and wear items of clothing like those worn by the Powhatan Indians, who lived in the Tidewater area during colonial times.

Many of the “artifacts” — Prince explained his artifacts were copies because the museums didn’t trust him not to break the real items — stumped the students initially.

A deer antler attached to a long, heavy stick didn’t look very useful when a student held it antler-up — but when Prince directed the student to put the antler-end on the ground, it suddenly became a rake.
Students figured out that another long stick with a flat, sharp item attached to its tip was a hoe, but cries of “eeeewwww” were heard when the “tip” was identified as a deer’s shoulder bone.

Deer were important in the Indians’ lives, Prince told the class.

The hides could be used as blankets, rugs and coats, cured for leather they used for clothing, arrow quivers and bags or even as a disguise, he said, explaining Indians draped in the furs could sneak up on herds of deer as they hunted.

Bone was used for tools and arrowheads, Prince said, and the meat was cooked and eaten immediately or dried and smoked to become jerky for later meals.

Students quickly identified a raccoon skin, but were surprised to learn that the word “raccoon” was an Indian term that settlers picked up on, and it became the common English word for the animal as well.

“Living with the Indians” also is scheduled for presentation Wednesday at Schoolfield Academy and on April 29 at I.W. Taylor and W. Townes Lea elementary schools.

“Cultures at Jamestown,” which compares housing, tools, clothing, food and technology of the Powhatan Indians, English settlers and Africans in 17th century Virginia, will be presented today at G.L.H. Johnson and April 25 at I.W. Taylor.

“Life at Jamestown” will teach students about the struggles the English colonists had at Jamestown during presentations Tuesday at Park Avenue Elementary School, Wednesday at Schoolfield Academy and April 30 at Woodberry Hills Elementary School.

“Life of a Private” will explore the life of a Revolutionary War private and students will get to see a typical soldier’s uniform, supplies and the contents of a typical carrying bag. They learn why people joined the Continental Army, how hard a soldier’s life was and the role of women in the army.

This program will be presented April 30 at Woodberry Hills.

Contact Denice Thibodeau at or (434) 791-7985.