DECATUR - Temperatures dipped to 25 degrees overnight Thursday, but "Indian Ed" - Ed Bradbury of Westervelt - spent the night in his tepee on the front lawn at South Shores School.

"It's really warm in there with the fire," said his wife, Colleen Bradbury, who didn't share the tepee on Thursday but has slept in it many times. "It's so cool to look up through the smoke hole and see the stars."

On Friday, the Bradburys and the tepee provided South Shores students with a hands-on kickoff to the school's unit on the origins of Thanksgiving. In the weeks leading up to the holiday, every class will study those origins, but Jeanene Edrington's fourth grade will get a special treat, thanks to her student teacher, Mindy Neff.

Neff's student teaching will end the first week of December, and she wanted to go out with a bang. Her father, Doug Neff, a firefighter at Decatur Fire Department's Station 1, will cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal for the class on Nov. 16.

"I wanted to thank the kids for the awesome experience," Neff said of her time at South Shores. "I learned as much from them as, I hope, they learned from me."

Dressed in traditional buckskin clothing, the Bradburys shepherded students into the tepee for a presentation. It was warm inside, even with the fire extinguished. Ed Bradbury showed children the different bows used to hunt different game, the animal skins used for seating, blankets and warm wraps, and the dream catcher hung over the head of a sleeping person.

"The web is made of sinew," Bradbury explained to the kids. Bad dreams and spirits get caught in the web overnight, and when the sun shines through the smoke hole in the morning, it burns up the bad dreams. Good dreams pass through the web and into the person sleeping under the dream catcher.

The hawk skull and feathers on his dream catcher, he said, came from a hawk who followed him through much of his youth. Every event he attended, everywhere he went, he saw this hawk. One morning he came out of his tent and found the hawk dead. By using the hawk's skull and feathers to decorate his dream catcher, he allows that hawk's spirit to continue to watch over him.

The Bradburys travel to outdoor festivals and give presentations at schools regularly. Some of the items they use in their demonstrations have been given to them by people they meet at the festivals.

"Somebody will say, 'You know, I've got something at home you may be able to utilize,'" Ed Bradbury said. "We add pieces and each one means something important."

Valerie Wells can be reached at vwells@herald-review.com or 421-7982.