Iroquois Longhouse

For her Little House on the Prairie class at co-op, our daughter had to choose an Indian tribe or person to do a project on. She chose the Iroquois, and rather than write a report she opted to make a longhouse. This consumed hours and hours of her time last week and she loved every minute of it! Here is the whole longhouse, with part of the stockade fence behind it. Did you know that the Iroquois built their villages inside stockades? You can see smoke curling out of the hole in the top, and a bear skin stretched out to dry in front.



Here the flap is opened to see the inside. An Iroquois longhouse would hold a whole clan of relatives, each family unit would have the space between two side "ribs" of the longhouse. They had benches built along the walls for sleeping and sitting, including an upper bunk for children. In this picture you can also see a red pipe cleaner in the center, twisted to look like fire.

This view is looking through one of the rib sections of the longhouse. There is a net hanging on the far wall, and a string of fish hanging in the foreground above a brown construction paper basket.

Close up of bear skin stretched out to dry, with a basket on the side.

A better view of the sleeping bunks, with a fur lying on the bottom bunk.

She will be sharing this with her class on Friday, and talking about the Iroquois. She is nervous but excited!