Published - October 6, 2016
Before we move on to the history of the government and Native Americans, a coverage of basic lifestyles will ground the reader.
Many people who study history books will think that all Native Americans lived the same. They didn't. They lived in homes of all kinds - ice igloos, huts, lodges, caves, adobe homes, and mobile teepees, or brush homes when traveling. Even canoes and water based homes were common in some areas. Some homes had only one occupant. Or only one family. Other home types were multi-family. About the only commonality that can be said about Native American homes is that the ancestral home suited the environment, and the people living inside.
Because the homes varied so much, it is difficult to study homes of Native Americans in general. They changed over the centuries, and as the environment around them allowed. Wall art was common, and that reflected the culture as well.
In modern times, Native Americans live in the same styles of homes as any other American. Brick, mobile home, log cabin. Their home is based more on what they can afford than the local environment. Reservation homes often do not portray anything about their cultural heritage.
I tried to write about homes for Native Americans, both present and future, as I see that they are, or may be. In Crosswinds: Past, Present, and Future Combine, the inhabitants live in tiny adobe homes on a reservation. As many do today. In Trails 3 and 4, homes are a more natural lodge like construction. In Trails 5 and 6, the homes are a combination of stone, and lodge like structures, depending on location and local building materials.
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