Post by awanita62 on Oct 9, 2014 10:53:37 GMT -6
Growing up as a kid I remember watching Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett and a variety of other frontier and westerns. The thing that amazed me was every Indian village were a bunch of tipi. Thanks Hollywood for putting into our heads that all Native Americans lived in tipis. Over the years I learned different and I would like to share with you some of the dwelling that our ancestors built or used in the different regions of the United States. So over the next few weeks in this series we will explore some of the different dwellings such as the Native American long house, wigwam, caves, pueblos and other types of dwelling. But to be fair to Hollywood we will start with the tipi because that is normally the first thing that pops into our minds…….once again thanks Hollywood
The tipi was used mainly by the plains Native Americans because it was very portable. A tipi could be taken down in a matter of minutes and be ready to move with the tribe. The plains Native Americans were predominately hunters and often moved to follow the herds of buffalo and other game. They also had a summer camp or village as well as a winter village, during the winter the plains Native American could be found around foothills, mountains, forest and lakes where game resided year around such as elk, deer, moose, bear as well as small game, birds and fish. In the spring these tribes would break winter camp and hunt the buffalo.
The tipi was very useful for this purpose. The tipi could be different sizes depending on the size of the family that occupied the dwelling. A normal twelve foot tipi consisted of twelve lodge poles. These pole were made from spruce, pine, cedar or jack pine these woods were found to be very sturdy and straight. Each pole was fourteen feet in length with the base being about three inches and the top about an inch. To construct the tipi using the lodge poles a tri-pod was tied and erected first in the marked area. Then the other lodge poles were placed to complete the circle. Once this was done they would use the long end of the rope that held the tri-pod to secure the all of the poles in place, walking around the frame of the tipi three or four time. The rope then would be pulled inside through the center and pegged into the ground on the west side of the center to make sure the frame did not move. The opening or door way of a tipi always faces east to keep out the rain.
The tipi covering was made from animal hide buffalo being the most common but elk and deer hide were used as well. For a twelve foot tipi covering would consist of thirty three to thirty four yards of hides which were hand sewn to create a half circle. The covering was laid to the west of the tipi and a lifting pole was attached to the top peg loop and then raised toward the east. Then both sides were brought around to meet at the east door and overlapped. Then the east side of the tipi was laced together. After the covering was placed the bottom was pegged into the ground with wooded pegs, two sixteen foot poles were attached to the smoke flaps at the top of the tipi. These smoke flaps were used for ventilation.
The family was now ready to move into their dwelling. The door of the tipi was always open unless it was winter.
.
The tipi was used mainly by the plains Native Americans because it was very portable. A tipi could be taken down in a matter of minutes and be ready to move with the tribe. The plains Native Americans were predominately hunters and often moved to follow the herds of buffalo and other game. They also had a summer camp or village as well as a winter village, during the winter the plains Native American could be found around foothills, mountains, forest and lakes where game resided year around such as elk, deer, moose, bear as well as small game, birds and fish. In the spring these tribes would break winter camp and hunt the buffalo.
The tipi was very useful for this purpose. The tipi could be different sizes depending on the size of the family that occupied the dwelling. A normal twelve foot tipi consisted of twelve lodge poles. These pole were made from spruce, pine, cedar or jack pine these woods were found to be very sturdy and straight. Each pole was fourteen feet in length with the base being about three inches and the top about an inch. To construct the tipi using the lodge poles a tri-pod was tied and erected first in the marked area. Then the other lodge poles were placed to complete the circle. Once this was done they would use the long end of the rope that held the tri-pod to secure the all of the poles in place, walking around the frame of the tipi three or four time. The rope then would be pulled inside through the center and pegged into the ground on the west side of the center to make sure the frame did not move. The opening or door way of a tipi always faces east to keep out the rain.
The tipi covering was made from animal hide buffalo being the most common but elk and deer hide were used as well. For a twelve foot tipi covering would consist of thirty three to thirty four yards of hides which were hand sewn to create a half circle. The covering was laid to the west of the tipi and a lifting pole was attached to the top peg loop and then raised toward the east. Then both sides were brought around to meet at the east door and overlapped. Then the east side of the tipi was laced together. After the covering was placed the bottom was pegged into the ground with wooded pegs, two sixteen foot poles were attached to the smoke flaps at the top of the tipi. These smoke flaps were used for ventilation.
The family was now ready to move into their dwelling. The door of the tipi was always open unless it was winter.
.