There were many different types of Native People's shelters and dwellings in Turtle Island and beyond. Each Nation and tribe needed a kind of shelter that would fit their lifestyle and their climate. Since, what has become known as, North America is such a big continent, different tribes had very different weather patterns to contend with.

In the Arizona deserts, temperatures can hit 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and in the Alaskan tundra, -50 is not unusual. Naturally, the Native developed different types of dwellings to survive in these different climates. Also, different tribes had different traditional lifestyles. Some tribes were agricultural, they lived in settled villages and farmed the land for corn and vegetables. They wanted shelters that would last a long time. Other tribes were more nomadic, moving frequently from place to place as they hunted and gathered food and resources. They needed shelters that were portable or easy to build.

Here are descriptions and pictures of some of the Native American house styles the people developed over the years to fit these needs.

Wigwam

Nations who used them

Algonquian, Great Lakes Tribes, Ojibway, Delaware, Powhatan, Massachuset, Cree

Cone-shaped made from birch

Wigwams (or wetus) are Native shelters used by Algonquian Indians in the woodland regions. Wigwam is the word for "house" in the Abenaki tribe, and wetu is the word for "house" in the Wampanoag tribe. Sometimes they are also known as birch bark houses. Wigwams are small shelters, usually 8-10 feet tall. They are made of wooden frames which are covered with woven mats and sheets of birch bark. The frame can be shaped like a dome, like a cone, or like a rectangle with an arched roof. Once the birch bark is in place, ropes or strips of wood are wrapped around the wigwam to hold the bark in place.

Domed-shape

Their villages were always located on river meadows and were generally kept small. Apaches also favoured this style of lodging.

Rectangular shape and wigwam under construction

Wigwams were good shelters for people who stayed in the same place for months at a time. Most Algonquian Indians lived together in settled villages during the farming season, but during the winter, each family group would move to their own hunting camp. Wigwams are not portable, but they are small and easy to build. Woodland Indian families could build new wigwams every year when they set up their winter camps.
 

Longhouses

Nations that used them

Iroquois tribes such as Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora

Longhouses were used by the Iroquois tribes and some of their Algonquian neighbours. They were built similarly to wigwams, with pole frames and elm bark covering. The main difference is that longhouses are much, much larger than wigwams. They could be 150 feet long and 20 feet wide, reaching a height of 20 feet. Inside the longhouse, raised platforms created a second story, which was used for sleeping space. Mats and wood screens divided the longhouse into separate rooms. Each longhouse housed an entire clan that could number as many as 60 people.
 

Longhouses were built by the Iroquois which were wooden structures 50 to 100 feet long which could house as many as 12 families. They cleared the land nearest to a river to provide an area for cultivation, to easily see raiders and to use the wood for fuel and building. The rectangular houses were structures of poles and sheeted bark. It's length depended upon the number of families and the width measured between 18 to 25 feet. It had a high arched roof with no windows but there were smoke holes along the roof because there might have been a dozen different fires burning inside at any one time. During snow or rain, the holes were partially or fully closed with sliding panels which severely cut down on ventilation due to the smoke and number of people within.

Along one side of the house was a ground-level platform which served as a kind of bunk bed where men, women and children slept together. Another platform was used for storage of pots, kettles, weapons and so forth. On nearby walls and rafters hung dried fruits and vegetables, tobacco and roots. The central corridor of the house is where all the cooking and socializing took place. Privacy was achieved by lowering "curtains" between compartments on the sleeping platform.

Such Iroquois villages lasted about 20 years because by then, the land was exhausted as was the wood supply. In that case, the village was abandoned in stages while a new one was being constructed at a nearby location.

Tipi (Tepee)

Nations who used them

Plains Tribes such as Sauk & Fox, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Sioux, Blackfeet, Comanche, Pawnee

Tipis (also spelled Teepees or Tepees) were used by the Plains tribes. The name tipi is derived from a Dakota word meaning a place where one lives.  A tipi is made of a cone-shaped wooden frame with a covering of buffalo hide. Like modern tents, tipis were carefully designed to set up and break down quickly. As a tribe moved from place to place, each family would bring their tipi poles and hide tent along with them. Originally, tipis were about 12 feet high, but once the Plains Indian tribes acquired horses, they began building them twice as high.
 

Peter Whyte, Luxton Museum of the Plains Indian, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta.

To guard against the strong winds that swept across the Plains, usually from the west, tipis were set up with its entrance to the east and were even tilted slightly in that direction to lessen wind pressure against the rear end of it. In winter, the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota added another layer of skin to line the inside of the tipi and act as insulation. With a central fire, the tipi stayed warm and comfortable. The fire also furnished heat for cooking and thus, an opening at the top of the tipi allowed for smoke to escape. The front of the tipi had flaps to seal in the warmth. But, in summer, they left the flaps open to allow cool breezes to circulate.

Blackfoot village

Tipis were good shelters for people who were always on the move. The Lakota, Dakota and Nakota migrated frequently to follow the movements of the buffalo herds. An entire village could have their tipis packed up and ready to move within an hour. There were fewer trees on the Great Plains than in the Woodlands, so it was important for these tribes to carry their long poles with them whenever they travelled instead of trying to find new ones each time they moved.

Grass houses

Nations that used them

Caddos Pomo

Grass houses were dwellings used in the Southern Plains by tribes such as the Caddos. The Caddo lived in east Texas in the pine forests. Their territory extended into Louisiana. Arkansas and Oklahoma.  The grass house resemble large wigwams but are made with different materials. Grass houses were made with a wooden frame bent into a beehive shape and thatched with long prairie grass. These were large buildings, sometimes more than 40 feet tall.

Grass houses were good dwellings for people in a warm climate. In the northern plains, winters were too cold to make homes out of prairie grass. But in the southern plains of Texas, dwellings like these were comfortable for the people who used them.

Grass house under construction

Wattle and Daub Dwellings

Nation that used them

Cherokee

These shelters (also known as asi, the Cherokee word for them) were used by south eastern tribes. Wattle and daub houses are made by weaving river cane, wood, and vines into a frame, then coating the frame with plaster. The roof was either thatched with grass or shingled with bark.

CHEROKEE HOUSE — The Western Office staff archaeologists were involved in the construction of a reproduction sixteenth-century Cherokee house at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee in 1993. The structure serves as an outdoor exhibit at the museum.