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Native Americans

Native Americans are often generically referred to as indigenous peoples within the boundaries of the continental United States, Alaska, and Hawaii. They are composed of many tribes, nations, or bands whose sovereignty is recognized by the government of the United States. According to the Department of Interior, there are 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States, the largest of which are Cherokee, Navajo, Latin American Indian, Choctaw, Sioux, and Chippewa. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, of the total U.S. population, 2.5 million people, or 0.9%, reported only American Indian, with an additional 1.6 million people reporting American Indian and at least one other race.

Traditional Native American Housing

When Europeans first ventured onto the continent, hundreds of individual nations or tribal groups lived throughout North America—each using local building materials and adapting their housing and way of life to the local climate. Within the United States, at least 10 geographic and cultural regions evolved, each of which corresponded with a geographic and climatic zone. In each region, one or at most two distinctive house types tended to prevail. These traditional dwellings, unique to a region, evolved over thousands of years in response to a way of life, to readily available building materials, and to local climates. Houses built in one region would have been impractical and uncomfortable if built in a different region. More important, because houses served as models of the universe within a given regional culture, they would have no meaning in another region. In Native American cultures, the dwellings were far more than a physical shelter. For many Native Americans, the house was a physical and spiritual representation of the universe. Native Americans saw themselves as one component of nature, sharing a living spirit that pervaded everything—animate (living) and inanimate (nonliving) objects alike. For example, peoples of the Great Plains felt it was a privilege to live in dwellings covered with the skin of the buffalo and thus to partake of the spirit of the animal that provided nearly all their food. Before peoples of the Pacific Northwest built a house, they asked permission of the earth to disturb the ground, so they could make the house. They would offer prayers to the red cedar if they needed a log for the house.

Examples of Indigenous Housing

Indigenous American Indian and Alaska Native housing has a rich and influential history that influenced today's energy efficient and environmentally designed housing. Traditional Indian housing was responsive to individual climate, local materials, and lifestyles of the people. Following are brief descriptions of nine indigenous housing types from various regions.

Northeastern House Longhouse

Native American homes of the wooded Northeast were called longhouses. Longhouses were rectangular homes with high barrel-shaped roofs and no windows. As their name states, these homes were very long, sometimes reaching over 300 feet in length. To form an arc-shaped shelter, the outsides of these homes were constructed of hundreds of sharpened poles driven into the ground and bent toward the center. To form a solid wall and roof, the arced upright poles were then woven horizontally with light cross poles, twigs, and strips of bark. Bark and twigs were sewn in place and layered as shingles to create a weatherproof roof.

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