![]() ![]() The material rots quicker than in original yi-hakins, in part because the structures are unoccupied at night and in winter when exhibits are not staffed. Reconstructions of such housing for exhibits for interpretive exhibits at such places as Jamestown require new thatching of the roofs and walls after one-two years. The interior framework was exposed in yi-hakins during the summer, but covered by mats, skins, and furs during the winter for extra warmth After soils were exhausted by farming, it made sense to move the house several hundred yards anyway. The organic building materials used for roofing and siding lasted only a few years before rotting, but that was sufficient. ![]() House repairs and construction were easier when bark was flexible in the winter, bark was too brittle. Bark was easiest to cut and peel from trees in the springtime as sap was rising. Men may also have been recruited to cut the bark from trees such as tulip poplar, thn haul the heavy slabs back to town. Source: Smithsonian Institution, Axe head Native Americans used stone axes to cut trees and make palisades, until getting access to metal axes made by Europeans When the women could not find saplings of the desired length and width, they could get stronger men to use stone axes to cut wood. The labor involved in house construction was substantial. In Powhatan's territory, English colonists recorded that the women gathered materials and constructed the houses. Source: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Late Woodland Organic stains in the soil ("postmolds") allow archeologists to identify where small poles formed the framework for Native American houses Making the reed mats and attaching them to the house required manufacturing up to a mile of rope, per house, from local plant fibers. Reeds were plentiful on the Coastal Plan near swamps, and trees were everywhere. The lower ring of mats or bark could be lifted up or removed in the summer to cool the interior. The sapling poles were also tied together, so the structures withstood the winds of summer thunderstorms and the snow loads in the winter. Vines and plant fibers, woven into twine, were used to bind together the mats of reeds. This yi-hakin at Henricus Historical Park, made from reeds and bark, had lasted four years by 2017 Source: US Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library, The Village of Pomeiooc (by John White, 1593) The exterior roofs and walls were made from mats of reeds or from bark peeled from nearby trees, rather than from clay.Įnglish colonists at Jamestown were already aware of Native American housing patterns, which Roanoke Island colonists had seen two decades earlier The Algonquian-speaking Native Americans first encountered by English colonists used local saplings to form the frame of their houses, which were called yi-hakans. Source: National Park Service, Jamestown - Sidney King Paintings, Trading With the Indians The English who reached Virginia in 1607 discovered that Native Americans built yi-hakans (houses) from saplings and reeds, and towns were often surrounded with wooden palisades ![]()
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