Table of Contents
How did the Kwakiutl tribe build their houses?
The Kwakiutls lived in coastal villages of rectangular cedar-plank houses with bark roofs. Usually these houses were large (up to 100 feet long) and each one housed several familes from the same clan (as many as 50 people.)
How many people did it take to build a longhouse?
On average a typical longhouse was about 80 by 18 by 18 ft (24.4 by 5.5 by 5.5 m) and was meant to house up to twenty or more families, most of whom were matrilineally related. The people had a matrilineal kinship system, with property and inheritance passed through the maternal line.
How long was the average longhouse?
180 to 220 feet long
A longhouse ranged in length from 30 feet to several hundred feet. A typical longhouse was 180 to 220 feet long. The length of a longhouse was determined by the size of the extended family that would live in it.
How long did longhouses take to build?
Longhouses, once built, lasted about twenty years. Many longhouses had a huge pole fence built around them for additional protection. Stairs were built on the inside of the fence, so that archers could easily climb up and defend against attack.
Where did the Mohawk Indians build their longhouses?
It dates to the 1720s and was written at the Mohawk Iroquois mission community of Kahnawake, near Montreal. Later, travelers among the New York Iroquois, like John Bartram and Conrad Weiser, described some of the last of the long-longhouses, built of post, poles, and saplings, and covered in bark.
What did the Iroquois use to build their longhouses?
First, they made a frame out of long poles of wood. Then, they tied young trees to the frame, trees young enough to bend and shape. Once they had the shape of the longhouse in place, they covered the house with bark. Many longhouses had a huge pole fence built around them for additional protection.
Where did the Pamunkey people build their longhouses?
The Pamunkey of the Algonquian-speaking Powhatan Confederacy in Virginia also built longhouses.
What’s the best way to make a longhouse?
Cut three one-inch holes in the top of the oatmeal container roof to serve as smoke holes. Glue oatmeal container to shoe box. Glue the oatmeal container roof to the shoe box. Now you have the basic structure of the longhouse. Cut out a hole for a door. Cut a hole in one end of the shoebox to serve as a door.