No doubt about it, Hollywood movies have gone a long way to imprint the image of the Plains Indian tipi: a conical tent made of animal skins.
Three Crow Tipis in Montana about 1905. Photo by Richard Throssel, ca 1905. Library of Congress LC-USZ62-95521
Tipis were temporary dwellings for Plains people, that could be easily put up and taken down when a Plains group needed to move, perhaps for following game like buffalo or elk, or movements following the seasons, or migrations for visiting relatives or other reasons.
Archaeological evidence for tipis still exists on the Great American plains of Canada and the United States, in places where modern roads and cities haven't obliterated them. This evidence is in the form of tipi rings, patterns of stones left behind, decades, centuries, or even thousands of years after the inhabitants moved on.
Learn more about:
Comments
From the picture, I’d say these tipis look like canvas. Just as they adopted iron goods over stone, the natives fairly rapidly adopted canvas when it became available. It was lighter and easier to pack than the usual hide tipi. Some authorities say the tipi was the best temporary, portable shelter ever invented. It had a liner that reflected the heat of the fire and provided a barrier between the interior and the cold outside air. In summer the sides of the outer skin were lifted to allow the wind to flow in and up. The smoke flaps could be positioned to provide draft to pull the smoke out the top. Ive been in a tipi in the coldest part of a South Dakota winter, and it was cozy warm. At rendezvous today, tipis give an air of authenticity more than the canvas lodges of the other buckskinners.
Interesting. Appreciate Herb’s comment above and similarly wonder if the technology for tipis prior to the introduction of woven textiles such as canvas, experienced a change with the introduction of the horse, since prior to the ability to travel and follow the great herds across the waterless distances of the arid plains, there would have been less need for these portable structures. Cheers.