Tuesday, May 29, 2012

American Indian (houses) or Lodges of Bark or Mats


American Indian (houses) or Lodges of Bark or Mats.

Ojibwa indians bark and matt house. This type of house was common to the algonquin tribes

The Omaha sometimes make bark lodges for summer occupancy, as did the Iowa and Sak. [T]iu′ȼipu jiñ′ga, or low lodges covered with mats, were used by the Omaha in former days. Such lodges are still common among the Winnebago, the Osage, and other tribes. The ground plan of such a lodge forms an ellipse. The height is hardly over 7 feet from the ground. The tent poles are arranged thus: Each pole has one end planted in the ground, the other end being bent down and fastened to the pole immediately opposite; a number of poles thus arranged in pairs formed both wall posts and rafters.
fig307Fig. 307.—Ground plan of Osage lodge.
Generally there was one fireplace and one smokehole in such a lodge; but when I visited the Osage in 1883, I entered a low lodge with two fireplaces, each equidistant from its end of the lodge and the entrance, each fireplace having its smokehole.
Kansa Sioux Indian lodge of matts and bark.