BULL. 30] 



HABITATIONS 



517 



ins was a frame of poles coveretl with 

 rush matting or with buffalo or elk skins. 

 The houses of the California tribes, some 

 of which are above noted, M'ere rectan- 

 gular or circular; of the latter, some were 

 conical, others dome-shaped. There was 



HAIDA HOUSE WITH TOTEM POLE. (nIBLACk) 



also formerly in use in various parts of Cali- 

 fornia, and to some extent on the interior 

 plateaus, a semisubterranean earth-cov- 

 ered lodge known among theMaiduastwjH. 

 The most primitive abodes were those 

 of the Paiute and the Cocopa, consist- 

 ing simply of brush shelters for summer, 



house of northern california indians; klamath river, 

 (powers) 



and for winter of a framework of poles 

 bent together at the top and covered 

 with brush, bark, and earth. Somewhat 

 similar structures are erected by the 

 Pueblos as farm shelters, and more elab- 

 orate houses of the same general type 

 are built by the Apache of Arizona. As 



APACHE HOUSE OF BRUSH AND CANVAS 



indicated by archeological researches, the 

 circular wigwam, with sides of bark or 

 mats, built over a shallow excavation in 

 the soil, and with earth thrown against 

 the base, appears to have been the usual 

 form of dwelling in the Ohio valley and the 

 immediate valley of the Miseissippi in pre- 



historicand early historic times. Another 

 kind of dwelling, in use in Arkansas before 

 the discovery, was a rectangular structure 

 with two rooms in front and one in the 

 rear; the walls were of uprightposts thickly 

 plastered with clay on a sort of wattle. 





HOUSE construction, MOUND BUILDERS. PLASTERED 

 WATTLE WORK. (tHOMAs) 



With the exception of the Pueblo strvic- 

 tures, buildings of stone or adobe were 

 unknown until recent times. 



Thedwellingsof some of the tribes of the 

 plains, as the Sioux, Arapaho, Comanche, 

 and Kiowa, were generally portable skin 

 tents or tipis, but those of the Omaha, 



JL 



VILLAGE OF TIPIS ; PLAINS INDIANS 



Osage, and some others were more sub- 

 stantial (see Earth lodge, Grass lodge). 

 The dwellings of the Omaha, according to 

 Miss Fletcher, "are built by setting care- 

 fully selected and prepared posts together 

 in a circle, and binding them firmly with 

 willows, then backing them Avith dried 



(earth lodge) 



grass, and covering the entire structure 

 with closely packed sods. The roof is 

 made in the same manner, having an 

 additional 8up]iort of an inner circle of 

 posts, with crotchets to hold the cross logs 

 which act as beams to the dome-shaped 

 roof. A circular opening in the center 



