Pacific Northwest Coast Native American Architecture: House Types, Uses, and Symbolism

Pacific Northwest Coast Native American Architecture: House Types, Uses, and Symbolism

Nuu-chah-nulth Village of Yuquot (Friendly Cove) 1778 drawing by John Webber, with Capt. Cook

Nuu-chah-nulth house 1778 Sketch by John Webber (with Captain Cook)

Haida village at Skidegate, 1860s

Sitka 1878

Masset

The house holds the tribes in its hand. -Kwakwaka wakw saying

PNWC Houses Used as a living space, with a fire (usually sunken, in the center) for cooking and congregating. Rising tiers along the walls for sleeping, sitting, and storage. Used as a ceremonial space in the winter, with a fire (usually sunken, in the center) around which dances, songs, and storytelling would be performed and feasting would be enjoyed. Rising tiers along the walls for the audience, sometimes with one side used as a stage.

Chief Weah s Monster House. The largest Haida house. 55-feet sides. About 3,000 square feet.

There was an opening in the roof for smoke and light. Could be completely open, partially covered, or completely covered/closed.

Made of cedar -logs were split and adzed (smoothed) for planks for walls and roof -original tools used were: -stone mauls -hardwood or sheephorn wedges - adzes and chisels with sharp clam or mussel shells -bone drills -

Planks could also be used as backrests on the ground

Chief s settee

Chief s apartment Was generally farthest from the doorway; slaves slept closest to the door, experiencing more draft and being available for any errands Was sometimes separated from the other 25-50 residents of the house by a wooden screen

Whale House with Rainwall Screen; boy in entrance to chief s apartment

Types of Houses in the Northwest Coast Haida 6-beam style North and Central gabled style Coast Salish shed-roofed style

PNWC Houses Haida 6-beam gabled house with house frontal pole (6 beams on a gable plank, supported by mortise and tenon slotting on corner posts 2-beam gabled house (2 beams on 4 interior houseposts) Coast Salish shed roof house with movable wall planks

Haida 6-beam houses Haidas lived on Queen Charlotte Islands and southern Prince Edward Island

Ridge plate/ barge board Haida 6-beam house with frontal pole: 6 roof beams on gable planks (ridge plates/barge boards); mortise and tenon slots on corner posts

Monster House required 8 beams, not just 6

Haida Monster House, Massett About 55 ft sides

Miniature model of a Haida house

Model of a Haida house with carved beam ends

Haida houses at UBC

2-beam gabled houses Built by all PNWC tribes except the Haida and some Coast Salish

Northern PNWC Tribes TLINGIT (SW Alaska, northern Prince Edward Island) HAIDA (southern Prince Edward Island, Queen Charlotte Islands) Built 6-beam houses TSIMSHIAN (northern BC across from the Haida, along the Skeena and Nass Rivers)

Central PNWC Tribes Northern Kwakwakwakw/ Northern Kwagiulth/Northern Kwakiutl/Bella Bella (on the BC mainland, south of the Tsimshian) Bella Coola/Nuxalk (inland of the Northern Kwakiutl on the Bella Coola River) Southern Kwakwakwakw/ Southern Kwagiulth/Southern Kwakiutl (on NE Vancouver Island and across on the mainland) Nuu-chah-nulth/ Westcoast/Nootka (on the west coast of Vancouver Island; related to the Makah on the NW tip of Washington)

2-beam gabled houses Two (not 6) main beams set on 4 interior houseposts (not on barge boards/ridge planks) 4 interior houseposts: often 2 sets of identical posts, facing inward towards the hearth Usually vertical wall planks

Note adzing marks on beams and posts

Whale House. Tlingit.

Interior house posts

Beam rested securely in the concave shape of the top of the houseposts, usually with no nails or even doweling

House Pole cosmology World tree (house pole) connects the: Sky world (upper reaches of branches) This world (tree trunk) Underground world (tree roots)

PNWC Treasures The greatest treasures of a PNWC chief and his family were kept in great wooden chests ( kawatsi ) The ceremonial house itself was a metaphor for a box of treasures (all the chief s treasures, including his family & their history, were kept within), and was shaped and decorated like a traditional box

PNWC house as a treasure box

House entrance (and dance screen entrance) as a passage of rebirth Entering through a doorway could refer to re-entering the birthing womb and/or entering the mysterious spirit world Black: death Red: rebirth

Reconstructed Tsimshian house front

Tlingit

Living houses that swallow those who enter; houses & family crests also guarded their wealth

Southern Kwakwaka wakw This beak could be lowered and closed to make frightening clanking sound; could also be lowered and used as a ramp.

Kwakwaka wakw. Raven.

Ceremonial house screens Wooden screens were often set in front of the chief s apartment; giving privacy and displaying family crests Those with holes in the center could be used very theatrically, as dancers could suddenly step or jump out onto the stage Cloth dance curtains (mawhil ) were generally temporary, for use during rituals; separated the public audience from the performers preparing behind

Interior of a Tlingit house: Rainwall dance screen and treasures

Tlingit. Raven

Dragonfly. Tsimshian

Coast Salish (and Nuu-chah-nulth) houses Southern PNWC

Southern PNWC Tribes Coast Salish (southern mainland coastal BC, SE Vancouver Island, coastal WA) Nuu-chah-nulth (west coast of Vancouver Island)

Coast Salish houses Some are 2-beam gabled houses (like most northern and central houses) Some are shed roof longhouses with movable, horizontal wall planks C.S. Longhouses up to 500+ feet long, with interior partitions separating family groups

Shed-roofed style Gabled style

40 x 200 foot gabled longhouse, Skokomish reservation, 1875

Shed-roof design Water drained to the rear

House from Ozette excavation Note movable horizontal walls. Planks were set in place between thin poles and tied. They could be removed during the summer months and carried to summer camps.

Summer camp, reusing planks and poles of winter structures