Native American DwellingsNative American Dwellingsfrom A to Zfrom A to Z

Presented by

Grade 4 – Room 323Mrs. Rohrman - Miss Possiel

Native Americans used the materials they found in their region to create their homes.

Adobe homes were builtby Southwest Native AmericansIn dry, desert areas.

Buffalo and

Bison were hunted by Native Americans who lived in the West. Their skins were used to cover dwellings such as tipis.

Chickees were naturally air-conditioned homes built by the Seminole in hot, humid, and swampy areas in the region that now includes Florida. They were built up high to keep out snakes and other intruders.

Dome-shaped homes, also known as wigwams, were built by Native American groups like the Algonquin, who stayed in the same place for months at a time. The dwellings were made of wooden frames covered with woven mats and sheets of bark from trees like the birch.

Earth lodges were homes built low to the ground and covered with sod by tribes in the Great Plains region, where there were few trees and harsh winters made it necessary to have protective shelter.

Faces Native American artists carved human, animal, and mythical faces out of wood in totem poles. Totem poles depicted legends or true stories of people in the tribe. They stood outside dwellings and villages.

Grass House Native Americans living in the Southern Plains built large wooden-framed dwellings that were covered with prairie grass. They could be as high as 40 feet tall.

The weather in this area stayed warm most of the time, so living in a grass-covered house was more practical than it would be in a harsher climate.

Hogan A Hogan was a one-roomed dwelling built by the Navajo people, who lived in what is now Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Early hogans were made of dirt- or clay-covered poles (left). Later hogans were also built using wood or stone (right).

Igloo and InuitThe Inuit of northern Canada built dome-shaped snow and ice houses called Igloos.

Igloos were good places to live in the freezing polar region of North America. They were well-insulated with snow, and the ice walls protected the people inside from wind and bad weather.

Outside Inside

Just For Men Many Native American

groups built wigwam-like Sweat Lodges. They did not live in the sweat lodge; it was a place where Native American men would gather for spiritual ceremonies.

Kiva The Pueblo, Hopi, and Anasazi groups of Native Americans built below-ground rooms for different spiritual ceremonies, called Kivas. To get into or out of the kiva, you needed to use a ladder.

Inside

Kiva at night

Longhouse Coastal Native Americans built longhouses built of thick cedar planks. They chopped down and split large cedar trees using beaver teeth and stone axes.

Longhouses were huge – ranging in length from about 100 to 500 feet and 25 feet wide. Some longhouses were so large an entire village lived within the single structure!

The only openings in the whole building were the entrance door and a hole in the roof to allow smoke to escape.

Outside Inside

Mats Making different types of mats was a very important activity in Native American life. Native Americans used woven mats made from grass or mats made from animal skins to cover their shelters. The picture at right shows a mat-covered tipi.

How mats were woven and tied

The Nez Perce, a group of Native Americans who lived in the Plains, built small villages along streams and rivers. They also built longhouses, but theirs were covered with mats. These longhouses were large and used for group ceremonies as well as extra winter housing for families.

Oral Storytelling was the main way Native Americans passed down their stories and legends from one generation to the next. During the times when the weather made them stay in their dwellings, Native American children enjoyed listening to their elders’ stories. The photo above shows a modern day Native American storyteller, with a prop tipi in the background.

Palisade Some groups of Northeast Woodlands Native Americans lived in villages that were palisaded. That means the village had a circular wall of logs around it, for protection from enemies or intruders.

Quilts Native Americans learned quiltmaking from European settlers. They became experts at designing and producing quilts that included traditional designs from their own cultures. Here are some examples of Native American quilts. Quilts were important inside Native American homes.

RugsNative American tribes like the Navajo are known for their beautiful and intricate rug designs, incorporating their culture and respect for nature with beautiful colors and patterns. Rugs were an important feature in Native American dwellings.

Symbols Native Americans decorated their dwellings with symbols from nature, from stories and myths, and from their daily own lives.

TipiThe tipi (teepee) was movable dwelling used by native American groups that needed to be able to pack up and move to a different location periodically, taking their homes with them. It was similar to the camping tents we use today.

UndergroundSome Native American structures, such as kivas, were built partially underground. Native Americans also used underground holes for storage.

VillageWhether they traveled and lived in tipis or stayed in one place and lived in wigwams, Native Americans frequently chose to live close to their relatives, in villages.

Wigwam or Wickiup or

WetusDifferent groups of Northeast Woodlands Native Americans called this different names, all beginning with the letter W!. These structures could be cone-shaped, dome-shaped, or rectangular, but they all had a wooden frame covered with tree bark, animal hides, or woven mats.

X marks the spot – a great place to camp!Native Americans picked the perfect spot at the water’s edge to set up their tipi village! It reminds us of a campsite that you might see today.

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is the home of the Wind River Reservation, the nation’s seventh-largest reservation, where many descendents of Arapahoe and Shoshone people still live.

Zuni Pueblo These pictures of Zuni Pueblo villages show how the Zuni built multi-story dwellings, with ladders to provide access to higher floors. Small window openings helped keep sand out of the house, while thick walls helped absorbed heat and kept the inside cooler.