Housing
Before the move to the Great Plains, traditionally Native Indians lived in villages made up of small earthlodgers, usually square in shape. They were supported with logs and covered with grass and earth that provided shelter.
As the nomadic Plains Indians followed the buffalo, each time the buffalo herds started moving, the Chief would decide to move to another area, so they would need to pack up camp to follow. Because of the lack of trees for logs and not enough other resources to build a new house every time they stopped, a solution to the housing problem was created. It was called a tepee also known as tipi or teepee and was the responsibility of the women to set up including where it was to be built.The tepee was a cone shaped tent with wooden poles arranged in a circle covered by ten to twenty buffalo hides that were sewn together. They were warm in winter and cool in summer and were different sizes but could hold up to 30-40 people. These tepees could be lived in all year round and when it rained or snowed, extra pieces of buffalo hide was wrapped around the top of the tepee. It provided shelter, warmth, protection and there was a fire for food preparation and heating and had a hole at the top to let the smoke out.
The tepees were quick and easy to pack up when the Indians were on the move again. When they moved they had to take all their possessions with them, so used a travois. The Travois was made with two tepee poles, joined at the horses shoulders. In the middle of the poles they had a frame or net to carry possessions and small children. The tepee logs were valued, because of the lack of trees to make the logs, so were carried every time they moved.
For the tribes that remained permanently in villages, the earthlodge or mud lodge was used. They were circular, domeshaped with a smoke hole at the top. They were covered with thick layers of earth on the outer with long grasses on the inner. The lodges were warm in the winter due to the insulation that the earth layer. The men helped with the logs that were used in the construction, but the women did the rest of the work so the lodge was owned by the woman who built it.