CHAPTER III 



MAITERIAL CULTURE 

 Habitations 



In former times the Winnebago seem to iiave had eight types of 

 lodges: The round lodge (tci p'drap'd'ratc), the long lodge (tci 

 se'retc), the tipi, the grass lodge, the gable lodge (na^haitci p'd'rap'- 

 aratc), the platform lodge, the ceremonial lodge, and the sweat 

 lodge. Of the round lodge and the long lodge there are three varie- 

 ties — one made entirely of bark (pi. 18, c) ; another made entirely of 

 reed mattings (pi. 18, a) ; and stiU another of bark with a roof cover- 

 ing of reed matting (pi. 18, h). The round and long lodges of all 

 three types are occasionally seen even now, rarely as habitations, 

 however, but as storehouses (pi. 19). Gable lodges are no longer 

 found among the Wimiebago, but the writer has been informed that 

 a few still exist among the Sauk and Fox living near Tama, Iowa. 



The round and the long bark lodges are constructed in a very 

 simple manner. These are built of poles of ironwood (tcatco'na) 

 driven into the ground, bent over and lashed to other poles 

 which meet them from the opposite direction. The poles are tied 

 together with basswood bark (Jii^cke' xuntc) . The same material 

 is used in attaching to these poles the cedar bark that forms the 

 walls of the lodge. Tlie walls are supported on the inside by a var}-- 

 ing number of poles (tcicu' curutea'^p) attached to the corresponding 

 poles of the other side. In many cases a series of transverse poles 

 (tcicu' na^jiyVerc) are inserted beneath the exterior vertical poles. 

 These can be seen in plate 18, a, h, c. The bark roofs are incased 

 in frames made of irregularly distributed vertical poles with generally 

 one transverse pole (pi. 18, a, h, c). If the roofs are of reed mat- 

 ting two or three of the external poles have poles attached to them 

 which are arched across the matting (pi. IS a, h, c). The reed 

 matting lodges, as a rule, have no external vertical poles and onl\' 

 tM'o transverse poles each, one on the outside and one on the inside 

 (pi. 19, r). 



Although considered of Winnebago origin by many Indians, these 



bark and reed matting lodges are in all probabihty of Central Algon- 



quian origin. They are easily constructed and for that reason were 



generally used for temporary purposes in the olden times. Accord- 



104 



