Porno Buildings 1 



By S. A. Barrett 



I 



gSf 1 HE Pomo Indians of California occupied a region embra- 

 gsgij c i n &i as nas elsewhere 2 been outlined, three distinct envi- 

 ronmental areas: the "redwood belt" along the immediate 

 coast line, the open, grassy "valley region" in the Russian 

 and Eel river drainages, and the "lake region" lying about 

 Clear lake and the other rush-bordered lakes of that vicinity. 



DWELLINGS 



The influence of these three environments on Pomo culture is well 

 shown in the distant type of dwelling 3 found in each area. 



The usual dwelling of the redwood belt was built of slabs of red- 

 wood bark and wood split out with the elk-horn wedge and usually 

 leaned together against a center-pole, or sometimes without it, to 

 form a conical structure, called tca'kawen (N). Owing to the nature 

 of the materials, such a house was fairly small, varying from eight to 

 about twelve feet in diameter and from six to eight feet in height. 

 Figures I and 2 of plate 1 show two of these slab houses photographed 

 in 1902. Of these the latter is more typical. The former is made 

 almost entirely of ordinary lumber. As is well shown in figure 2 of 

 this plate, these slabs are so placed as to leave an opening of sufficient 

 size at the top to permit the ready escape of smoke. The door was 

 formed by omitting one or more slabs from one side; this was closed 

 when desired by setting in the necessary slabs to fill it. 



A long, wedge-shaped slab house was made also in this area, 

 though this type has long since passed out of use. Nothing in the 



1 The information on which this paper is based was collected largely during the years 1903 and 

 1904 as part of the work of the Ethnological and Archaeological Survey of California, conducted 

 by the Department of Anthropology of the University of California through the munificence of 

 Mrs Phoebe A. Hearst. Part of it was gathered during twelve years of residence in the Pomo 

 region prior to that time. All the photographs used as illustrations were made by the author in 

 1901 and 1902. Most of the buildings shown are types which are no longer built by the Pomo. 



2 The Ethno-Geography of the Pomo and Neighboring Indians, Univ. Calif. Publ., Amer. Arch. 

 Ethn., vi, 22-27, 1908. The alphabet used in the paper cited (pp. 51-54) is employed in recording 

 the Indian terms in the following pages, except that the voiceless dental stop is here represented 

 by t instead of t. 



Also native terms are followed by a parenthetical initial indicating the dialect to which each 

 belongs, viz.: N, Northern; C, Central; E, Eastern; S, Southern; and SE, Southeastern. 



3 The general features of these three types of dwellings are outlined in the paper above men- 

 tioned, but a more detailed discussion, with illustrations, is here undertaken. 



[I] 



