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Site Index | CVA Index | Site Map | Native American Home
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Native American Architecture
(click on each link for more information)
1. The mound was associated with indigenous people of the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys, who built large communities centered around mounds that held the leader's house and the temple. The Natchez culture is one example.
2. The Cherokee people built wood homes in their farming communities in the southeastern United States, and after contact with Europeans, adopted domestic log cabins much like those built by the European settlers.
3. The wigwam was used by many indigenous people, including the Ojibwe people, in the northeastern portions of what is now the United States.
4. The longhouse was the other traditional dwelling of the people in the northeast, including the people who joined together to form the Iroquois League.
5. The tipi, Sun Dance lodge, and sweat house were used by the bison hunters of the Great Plains region.
6. The earthlodge was constructed by the farming people of the Great Plains.
7. In the Arctic region, the forms of architecture built by the native people varied, depending on the time of year and the resources available. The people known as the Inuit and Yuit, formerly known collectively as the Eskimos, built a variety of structures, including earth covered winter homes framed with wood or whalebone. The iglu, the stereotypic architectural form for Arctic people, was actually used only by those living in the central Arctic region between Labrador and the MacKenzie delta, where wood was very scarce. Most people of the Arctic lived in framed tents covered with hides during the summer months.
8. The basic architectural form of the Pacific Northwest area was the plankhouse. Various forms of the plankhouse were constructed by the Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Haida, and Tlingit groups. The people of this region used elaborate images of animals and mythical beings in their art forms. These figures were used to represent the lineage and were players in crucial events in the history of that lineage. Some identifying features of these animals are presented.
9. The architecture of the area we now know as California was as varied in aboriginal times as were the people, whose languages represented six of the seven major language groups. The Yurok lived in redwood framed plankhouses, while the desert Cahuilla lived in wood frame and brush structures.
10. The hogan was, and is, the traditional dwelling of the Navajo, or Dine people in the southwest region. The conical forked-pole hogan is associated with men, while the corbelled log hogan is associated with women.
11. The Pueblo groups in the Southwest are named, collectively, after their primary form of traditional architecture, the multiple room structures with several levels that some have compared with modern apartment buildings. The Pueblo communities also include kivas, rooms used primarily by men, both for their daily activities and for ceremonies.
