400 Years Ago…
By Morgan W.
400 years ago an eleven year old girl named Tiger Lilly lived on Nantucket with her Wampanoag tribe. Tiger Lilly was one of the cooks for the tribe. The men and boys would hunt for meat and she and ten other girls would cook with the women. The ate deer, fish, clams, and turkeys. They also ate berries and corn. She made her own clothes from animal fur. She has two older sisters and one younger brother. Her mother helps gather berries and take care of young children. Her father is one of the main hunters. She was a very adventurous girl and was always exploring Nantucket.
One day Tiger Lilly and her tribe saw dark, grey rain clouds in the sky and could tell there was going to be a storm! After that they all heard thunder and everyone ran for their teepees. The whole tribe lived teepees just big enough for their families. For three days the storm went on, ruining their vegetable gardens, their food storage, and many of their teepees. By day two every single garden was destroyed. The wind was blowing at 70 mph and it was raining and snowing at the same time. Once the storm was over the snow and rain froze, so everywhere was icy and slippery. Everything was in ruins. It would take weeks to build everything back up.
It was the beginning of Spring and everything was repaired from the last big storm. Tiger Lilly decided to go for a walk and hunt for food . Girls weren't supposed to hunt but she did anyway. As she was walking she noticed the flowers were budding, the birds were chirping and all the insects were out and about.
The bees, butterflies, flies and the hummingbirds were pollinating. Tiger Lilly also noticed a long trail of squirrel tracks. She went down the path of tracks and saw a squirrel. She was about to shoot the squirrel with her bow and arrow but she stopped and smelled the air. It smelled like seafood, so she ran to the beach and left the squirrel. Once she got to the beach she found a huge pile of clams, scallops, mussels and oysters. She realized they must have got washed ashore during the storm, but nobody would have come to this beach because it is pretty far away from the tribe and everyone was busy working. Tiger Lilly collected as many as she could and ran back to the tribe. Everyone was very happy that night because all of their hard work was finished and they had a feast. After the feast the tribe made a fire and everyone sat around it. The kids made jewelry out of the clam, scallop, mussel and oyster shells and the adults told stories!
The next week the weather was really starting to change. It was getting much hotter, so Tiger Lilly started wearing her light and cooler animal skins. All Tiger Lilly's family members worked very hard except her. Her oldest sister Daisy was always telling her to stay focused and to listen. Her other older sister, RoseY, is always busy and says that Tiger Lilly doesn’t work hard enough. Her younger brother Oak doesn’t really care what Tiger Lilly does, he just tries to stay out of trouble, but sometimes he will go explore with Tiger Lilly. Her mother, Maple is always very busy and doesn’t have much free time. Spruce, Tiger Lilly’s father is also very busy, but whenever he has free time he will play with Tiger Lilly and her siblings.
Tiger Lilly decided that her family needed a break from working, so she went outside, picked some berries, put them in a basket with some other food and got her family. It was late afternoon and her and her whole family went for a walk. As they were walking they noticed all the birds flying back from migration. Then they started to get hungry, so Tiger Lilly took out her basket of food. She was just about to eat one of the berries she picked, but then she heard, “STOP!” It was Daisy she said, “Those berries are poisonous, they could kill you” Then Tiger Lilly took out another berry and said, “Is this one bad to ?” Rose said, “No those ones are called blueberries. They are great to eat!” All the sisters split up the bad berries from the good ones and threw away the rest. They also ate pickle weed, also known as glasswort. The family had a lot of fun throughout their walk and thanked Tiger Lilly for bringing them!
The next couple of days Oak didn’t feel good so he just laid down. By the fourth day of him being sick, Daisy didn’t feel great either. She was the one that was taking care of him the most. Then Tiger Lilly’s whole family didn’t feel good, except for Tiger Lilly. No one could figure out how Oak got sick. Finally Tiger Lilly got the tribe doctor to come to their teepee. The doctor said they have the rare case of the flu. Soon almost everyone in the whole tribe had the flu. There were about 75 people in the tribe and three quarters of them got the flu. It was awful, everyone was sneezing and coughing. 10 people died because there was no cure, but nobody in Tiger Lilly’s tribe died luckily. For the next three weeks it went on, but eventually it ended. The next week was just everyone recovering.
One day a group of English sailors came on island. Everyone was wondering who they were and if they were going to hurt them. Tiger Lilly’s family didn’t like the look of this so they ran away, built a new home deep, deep in the woods and were never seen again!
