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LEARNING LONGHOUSE
| House at the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada 2007 |
A longhouse
is the term used to describe traditional, long, bark-covered houses in which
the Haudenosaunee lived before European contact. Each longhouse provided shelter
for many people. The people who lived in a longhouse were closely related
and belonged to a certain clan or were married to a woman belonging to that
clan. If the family grew in
number, the longhouse could be extended and made longer.
A longhouse was built by making a framework of tree saplings over
which large slabs of elm bark were attached.
A doorway was located at both ends of the longhouse.
Animal skins could be hung in the doorways to keep out the wind and
the cold. There were no
windows.
Sleeping platforms were
built along both sides of the inside of the longhouse.
People could hang skins as curtains for privacy.
Platforms were also built above the sleeping areas for storage.
Belongings could be stored under or over the sleeping platforms or
hung from the rafters. There
were fire pits for cooking, heat and light along the length of the interior
of the longhouse. Openings in
the roof above each fire pit allowed the smoke to escape.
Today, the
Haudenosaunee live in all kinds of buildings.
They live in apartment houses, farm houses, short houses, tall
houses, cabins, modular homes, mobile homes, big houses and little houses.
Some live away from the reservations in tall, city skyscrapers.
