wickiup The domed, round shelter was used by numerous northeastern Indigenous tribes. The curved surfaces make it an ideal shelter for all kinds of conditions.
Indigenous peoples in the
Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Lowlands resided in either wigwams or
longhouses. These structures are made with a frame of arched poles, most often wooden, which are covered with some sort of bark roofing material. Details of construction vary with the culture and local availability of materials. Some of the roofing materials used include grass, brush, bark, rushes, mats, reeds, hides or cloth. -style tipis and
Ojibwe wigwam,
White Earth, Minnesota, 1928 Wigwams are most often seasonal structures, although the term is applied to rounded and conical structures that are more permanent. Wigwams usually take longer to put up than
tipis. Their frames are usually not portable like a tipi. A typical wigwam in the Northeast has a curved surface which can hold up against the worst weather. Young green tree saplings of just about any type of wood, long, are cut down and bent. While the saplings are being bent, a circle is drawn on the ground. The diameter of the circle varies from . The bent saplings are then placed over the drawn circle, using the tallest saplings in the middle and the shorter ones on the outside. The saplings form arches all in one direction on the circle. The next set of saplings are used to wrap around the wigwam to give the shelter support. When the two sets of saplings are finally tied together, the sides and roof are placed on it. The sides of the wigwam are usually bark stripped from trees. The male of the family is responsible for the framing of the wigwam.
Mary Rowlandson uses the term
wigwam in reference to the dwelling places of Indigenous people that she stayed with while in their captivity during
King Philip's War in 1675. The term
wigwam has remained in common English usage as a synonym for any "Indian house"; however, this usage is dispreferred, as there are important differences between the wigwam and other shelters. During the American revolution the term
wigwam was used by British soldiers to describe a wide variety of makeshift structures.
Wickiups of the west Wickiups were used by different
indigenous peoples of the Great Basin, Southwest, and Pacific Coast. They were single room, dome-shaped dwellings, with a great deal of variation in size, shape, and materials. The
Acjachemen, an
indigenous people of California, built cone-shaped huts made of
willow branches covered with brush or mats made of
tule leaves. Known as
kiichas, the temporary shelters were utilized for sleeping or as refuge in cases of inclement weather. When a dwelling reached the end of its practical life it was simply burned, and a replacement erected in its place in about a day's time. Below is a description of
Chiricahua wickiups recorded by anthropologist Morris Opler: The home in which the family lives is made by the men and is ordinarily a circular, dome-shaped brush dwelling, with the floor at ground level. It is high at the center and approximately in diameter. To build it, long fresh poles of oak or willow are driven into the ground or placed in holes made with a digging stick. These poles, which form the framework, are arranged at intervals and are bound together at the top with yucca-leaf strands. Over them a thatching of bundles of big bluestem grass or bear grass is tied, shingle style, with yucca strings. A smoke hole opens above a central fireplace allows smoke to escape when the firepit is used. A hide, suspended at the entrance, is fixed on a cross-beam so that it may be swung forward or backward. The doorway may face in any direction. For waterproofing, pieces of hide are thrown over the outer hatching, and in rainy weather, if a fire is not needed, even the smoke hole is covered. In warm, dry weather much of the outer roofing is stripped off. It takes approximately three days to erect a sturdy dwelling of this type. These houses are "warm and comfortable even though there is a big snow". The interior is lined with brush and grass beds over which robes are spread.... Image:Wikiup.jpg|Illustration of an
Acjachemen wickiup, California File:Ribs of Apache wickiup.jpg|Frame of
Apache wickiup File:Chiricahua medicine man.jpg|Chiricahua
medicine man and family in wickiup File:Ute wickiup.jpg|
Ute wickiup File:Snow pic of old frame wickiup.jpg|Frame of
Crow sweat lodge in snow File:University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum - Wigwam display.jpg|Wigwam display at
University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum =="Wigwam" in different Algonquian languages==