1. Welcome to the Museum of
Native Americans
Door # 1
Homes Exhibit
Curator’s
Office

2. Mrs. Rhew
Mrs. Rhew loves computers. She especially likes working with all her students on various computer projects.
Bibliography
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3. Native American Homes
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Entry

4. Kachina Dolls
The Hopi tribe would carve Kachina dolls from cottonwood root. Traditionally, one cottonwood root would be used for the body and other pieces would be glued on. Originally Kachina dolls were painted with minerals and vegetable pigments. Dolls would represent a spirit in life. Today Kachina dolls are still made by women carvers. They are exquisite and very expensive. Miniature dolls are extremely popular.
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5. Native American Games
Native American enjoyed playing games just like us, however most of the games origins were with the tribal gods. Games were played to bring rain, a prosperous harvest, cure illness and make evil spirits vanish. Generally boys and girls played separately. Boys games tested their strength, agility and dexterity. Native Americans honored their skilled athletes the same way they honored brave warriors. Traditionally some games were used to train boys for warfare and hunting.
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6. Transportation
The Hopi tribe rarely traveled by canoe. The didn’t live close to any rivers or bodies of water. There were no horses until the colonists brought them over from Europe. The Hopis made a type of sled called a travois. Dogs would pull the travois. Tribes would walk so travel
was very difficult and took a long time. Hopis started using horses once Europeans brought them to the new world.
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7. Food
There were no grocery stores before the colonists came to North America. Native Americans would gather food by hunting, fishing and growing their own crops. The tribes were excellent farmers. They planted and grew crops of squash, corn and beans. Women would gather nuts and fruit while men fished and hunted deer, antelope and small game like quail and rabbit.
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8. Clothing
Hopi women wore Mantas, a cotton knee-length dress that fastened at the right shoulder. Men wore breechcloths or short kilts that resemble men’s skirts. Both men and women wore moccasins made of deerskin. Men also wore cloth headbands that tied around their foreheads instead of traditional Native American headdresses. The Hopi would paint their faces for special occasions.
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9. Native American Tepees
Hopis did not live in teepees. These Native American structures were the homes of the Plains Indians. Teepees were made of buffalo hide. The hides fastened around long wooden poles and they resembled a cone shape. Teepees were wonderful homes for the Plains tribes because they stayed warm in the winter and were cool in the summer. Many teepees were large enough to fit 30 to 40 people.
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10. Adobe Homes
The Hopi are natives to the Southwest Arizona region and the Adobe homes were the perfect structures for this tribe. The houses were constructed using bricks made of baked clay and straw. Most were multi-story houses. One unit was home to a whole family. A Hopi adobe house can contain dozens of units. Often an entire clan would live in one multi-story home.
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11. Longhouse
A longhouse was just that a long house measured not by feet but by campfires. Some longhouses had 10 to 12 campfires within the structure. The houses were designed by making a frame using long wood poles. Men would then tie young trees to the frame bending and shaping the structure. Once they had the shape of the long house, they would cover the outside in bark. They added smoke holes and two doorways, one on either end. This was the perfect home for the Iroquois tribe.
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