You
probably don't know what an at.oow is, and I don't blame you for that. I didn't
know what an at.oow was too until in my English class, we learned about Tlingit
Native Americans. The Tlingit Indians are original people of the Pacific
Northwest Coast. They live in southern Alaska and in British Columbia and the
Yukon in Canada. An at.oow is basically a small mat that represents you or your
family. In the Tlingit tribe, at.oows also represented their clan. The at.oow is
the most prized possession of the entire clan. It is passed from generation to
generation. Clan crests and spirit designs are socially and spiritually
important to the Tlingit. For example, an at.oow might have an eagle for the
clan because the clan might have had really good eyesight. Since our class was
reading a novel called, Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen, which is
related to the Tlingit tribe, my teacher decided to assign us with an
interesting project. The project was to make our own at.oow, based on the book
we were reading. My at.oow here represents me. My at.oow actually turned out to
look really nice!
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| My At.oow |
My at.oow is very colorful and
the background is a rainbow for a reason. As you might know, I am usually really cheerful. The rainbow
background represents how happy I am. You don’t need to impress me too much to
make me happy. Some things I get happy for include Fridays, days with no
homework, and even little things like it my favorite breakfast! Happiness is
the essence of life! If one person is really happy, they pass on their happiness.
The two doves on both sides of the crest represent the amount of peace and love
I have. Well, what do I mean by peace and love? In many parts of the world, war
is raging on and on. It would be great if the entire world had peace among each
other… that would be a perfect world. But, we all know nothing is perfect.
Still, I do believe in world peace. The crest is also colored red and black
because it shows how bold and brave I am….also shows that I am in Gryffindor :)!!!
The crest is even on both sides. That signifies the balance I try to keep
between work and fun I have in myself. I try to follow the saying “Work while
you work, play while you play”. That way I can finish all my work and have some
free time too. The lion on the top symbolizes strength and power. On the top
left hand corner, there is a book and a pencil writing on a paper. The book
represents how much I enjoy reading. The pencil and paper symbolizes schoolwork
and my brains ;). On the next corner to the right, a palette is there to show
how much I adore art and painting. Art is my hobby and I can do it for days and
days in a row. The music notes on the bottom indicate my love towards music and
the eight years I’ve been playing the piano. The bottom left corner, has a
computer which stands for the use of technology that I have, and how much I
love working with technology. The four leaf clover is for the good luck that I
have. I usually never get caught (not that I do anything that bad) but, I
really do have good luck. When we are supposed to run the mile in P.E, (which I
don’t like), and I really do not want to do it that day, sometimes it rains
really hard. That leads to skipping the mile! The jar filled with coins is for
the hard work I do. I really don’t give up easily on things and for some reason
I just have to finish what I started, no matter how boring it is. The wolf paws
on the bottom, symbolizes that I never get distracted and I advance towards my
goal. On the bottom right corner, the maze-like symbol indicates the unity I
have. I can get along with people very easily. Finally, the two hearts combined
together shows friendship. My at.oow signifies my characteristics and
qualities. The at.oow shows my real personality and how distinctive it is from
other personalities. My at.oow is one of a kind and only represents me. The
at.oow is like an “all-about-me” poster. At the same time, it’s a traditional
Tlingit Native American tradition.
