She could make a buffalo coat, a rabbitskin blanket, a cattail mattress, a tepee. She knew the plants her people used to cure or ease illnesses and how to use them. Like all Agaidika girls, she became proficient at making baskets and doing what resembled modern Indian beadwork at a time when her people had never seen beads. Porcupine needles were soaked in dye, chewed or pounded flat and woven together in intricate patterns.
She'd have mastered all these skills by the time she was 12.
At that age, she was said to have been small but wiry, with attractive facial features.
"The men would deal with movement, where the bands would go. The women would have the say around the camps. Children started learning right away. There was no TV then. And you'd listen to the stories that would tell you about your beliefs and customs. Long ago, girls worked harder than they do today. It was based on your survival and the fact you could be attacked by the enemy. Girls were taught to be aware of enemies. They were taught to use weapons, and they always carried a knife." Camille George
From her tribe's elders and her relatives, she learned the Agaidikas' history, cultural traditions and spiritual beliefs. Stories of who they were and what they believed were told to children from the time they were old enough to understand. Members of other tribes would have recognized her immediately as an Agaidika, identified by the reddish paint her people wore in the parts in their hair, around their eyes and on their foreheads and cheeks. The paint, made with red, iron-oxide clay, was a symbol of peace.
Between the ages of 10 and 12, Agaidika girls went with their mothers, aunts and grandmothers for one of the last parts of their education. They called it the doe-yuh-huvee. A spiritual quest and a coming-of-age ritual, it was a day and a night spent in the mountains away from the rest of the tribe.
A girl was told, among other things, about the changes she would experience as she became a woman.
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