Craftory: Corn Husk Doll

[Music] welcome to craftery by prageru kids crafts history and your questions I'm Jill and today we're making a classic Native American corn husk doll to learn a bit about life on the Prairie in the 1800s when many Americans became pioneers and headed west for adventure and opportunity here's what you'll need for today's craft 10 corn husks soak them in warm water for about 15 minutes to make them bendy you can find these at grocery stores or online string of almost any kind I'm using yarn here I got it from a craft store a large towel scissors and that's it oh we've got a question [Music] I've seen corn husk dolls before but why don't any of them have a face I was hoping someone would ask that okay corn husk dolls were created by the Iroquois people Native Americans from the eastern part of the United States they have a legend about their corn husk doll explaining that she doesn't have a face because she started admiring her own Beauty too much it's a great story with a Wise lesson for all of us to remember we actually have an Autos tale story Time episode about it if you want to hear it for yourself let's get to making our doll and I'll tell you more about Native Americans and American settlers this is so fun you're gonna love it what you're gonna do first is spread out your towel because this might get messy get your corn husks out of the water and lay them out on the towel because we don't want to get our furniture soaking wet I soaked these in here for about 15 minutes in warm water because now I can bend them when I'm making my doll and if they rip it's okay one two three four five six once you get these a little bit dry stack them on top of each other to make a little triangle like this and it's okay if they're not perfectly even there we go just like that now tie these very tightly with a piece of string just about two inches from the top [Music] these are so fun to make with friends and they're really easy you're not gonna go for cleanup now what you're going to do is turn these upside down to sort of peel it like a banana there we go and try and do all the husks separately if you can now we're going to take another piece of string tie it around right here and that's going to be the head do you see it this is going to become this in no time you know Native Americans taught early Americans how to do a lot of things like grow corn the pilgrims would not have survived in America if it weren't for Native Americans teaching them their ways for planting and harvesting crops and using all parts of nature to help them live the natives used the husks of the corn to make mats baskets and Dolls many years later American settlers started doing this too when they started moving west across the United States corn husk dolls became popular toys for pioneer children during the 1800s okay now let's make our dolls arms you're gonna take two more husks out of the water and place them on the mat get them a little dry there we go lay them sideways and place them on top of each other with the narrow ends at opposites now roll these up together very very tightly there we go now we're going to tie it in the middle very tight again we don't want these coming undone it's a little trim and tie it on each side [Music] last one there we go so why did Americans start moving West in the 1800s well Americans have always looked to the West for freedom and opportunity and lots of exciting things happen during that time that made America bigger the Louisiana Purchase during President Thomas Jefferson's time in 1803 the Mexican-American War and the Gadsden purchase in 1853. I'll let you learn more about those later America became much bigger with lots of land for settlers to move to and many pioneers traveled by covered wagons usually made of hard wood wagons also usually had food water tar and extra wheels and I'm gonna guess maybe corn husk dolls too let's finish our corn husk doll now take your corn husk arms and what you're gonna do is fit it under the doll you're gonna lift up these hanging husks so that you get about halfway and you're gonna put the arms as close to the head as possible fold over the husks and then you're going tie the body of the doll to keep the arms in place you might need Helping Hands for this one let's see if I can do it can I do it can I do it we're gonna try do her arms look a little long I think they do if you need to trim to make the arms shorter you can do it now one two three [Music] it worked one two three much better let's give this a little trim on the strings [Music] let's make her gown a little fluffier [Music] life was tough for Pioneers heading west and could be very dangerous too the Native Americans and Pioneers didn't always get along but they also learned to trade customs and skills to survive and the corn husk doll is one of those Customs a Native American tradition with a Wise lesson from the Iroquois people corn husk dolls traveled West with settlers and their families all the way to California now you're going to want to let the corn husk doll that we just made dry for one to two days because then she's going to turn out like this nice and dry isn't she beautiful we hope you had fun if you've got ideas or questions for our next craftery send them our way keep crafting keep learning and keep celebrating land of the free and home of the break bye guys [Music] thank you for watching you know we've got more episodes right watch the whole series And subscribe at prageru kids.com