The longhouses could be as long as one hundred feet and housed Seneca clans. Because the longhouse supported many people. At least 10 families can fit in a longhouse. A "longhouse" is a type of house. In the United States, the Iroquois in the northeast and many tribes of the Pacific northwest built them. They existed in other parts of the world, too. They were not dwellings for one family, but for many people. Log in. Iroquois Indians. Study now. See Answer. Best Answer. Study guides.
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Why did the Iroquois fight mourning wars. Which European explorer conquered the Inca empire. Q: How many people can a longhouse hold? Write your answer Related questions. How many families can a longhouse hold? There were interior posts as well that formed the center aisle. All posts had to be strong and stiff and set firmly in the ground because they were the foundation of the building. Horizontal poles lashed to the posts, both across and along the length of the longhouse, greatly strengthened the structure.
The roof was supported by poles that were attached at the tops of the posts and were bent into an arch that reached from one wall across the building to the opposite wall. These roof supports are called rafters. They had to be strong and flexible. Other poles were fastened across the rafters along the length of the longhouse, to make the roof stable.
When it was finished, the framework made a grid pattern. This framework was the skeleton of the building to which sheets of bark were attached to complete the roof and walls. The parts of the frame had to be close enough together to support the sheets of bark, which were peeled from large trees. The posts and poles came from small trees saplings that were tall and straight. These trees were cut to the proper length and the bark was removed from the posts and poles to reduce insect damage and decay.
This bark was peeled off in narrow strips, and was saved for future use. Different types of trees were used in various parts of the building.
For example, a strong, stiff tree would be used for the outer posts. A strong but flexible tree would be used in the curved rafters. The Iroquois probably bent their rafters from freshly cut trees, because green wood is much more flexible than dry. Fasteners: Holding the parts of a building together is an essential part of construction.
Modern wooden houses are held together with steel nails, but the Iroquois had no nails. Instead, they tied or lashed their buildings together with long strips of bark, or with ropes made by braiding strips of bark.
When the bark is fresh and wet, it is flexible and can be wound around poles and posts to tie them together. When it dries, it shrinks a little and becomes stiff, thereby tightening the joint. Useful strips of bark can be pulled off some trees for a brief period in the spring when the sap is flowing freely. Basswood and hickory trees are good. Because the sap did not flow all year, the Iroquois probably harvested the bark when they could, then kept it under water until needed.
Covering: The framework of the longhouse was covered with sheets of bark. Trees whose bark could be peeled into large sheets were preferred because big sheets made the job easier.
The Iroquois used elm bark if it was available. Bark must be harvested in the spring while the leaves are still small, because that is when it is easily peeled off the tree. The sheets must be flattened out and held with weights while they dry to keep them from curling up. A sheet of elm bark that has been flattened and dried is quite strong, like a piece of plywood.
The bark of an elm tree has deep grooves or furrows in it that run up and down along the trunk. However, the Iroquois usually lashed the bark to the frame of the longhouse with these groves running horizontally.
This probably was done because it was easier to keep the bark flat by pressing it against the vertical posts. There is an eyewitness report of the Iroquois using an adz to smooth out these furrows so that they wouldn't catch the rainwater as it ran down the roof and sides of the longhouse. After the bark was hung on the frame it needed to be held down to keep it flat and to keep the wind from lifting it.
The Iroquois put another framework of small poles on the outside of the bark for these purposes. Provided below are excerpts from historical documents describing the longhouses and villages as they appeared in the early s through the middle s.
Archaeologist Dean R. Some personal and official accounts were not published at all. Fortunately, during the past century, interest in these descriptions led to their re- publication in English translation, with additional notes provided by their translator and editor.
As you can see from the list of references above, Dr. Snow relied upon recent editions of these works, since these are more readily available.
It does seem strange, however, to be reading a firsthand description dating to the s of an Iroquois longhouse, and then see that it was published in the s. First translation: "Their cabins [cabannes] are in the shape of tunnels [tonnelles] or arbors, and are covered with the bark of trees. They are from twenty-five to thirty fathoms long, more or less, and six wide, having a passage-way through the middle from ten to twelve feet wide, which extends from one end to the other.
On the sides there is a kind of bench, four feet high, where they sleep in summer, in order to avoid the annoyance of the fleas, of which there are great numbers.
In winter they sleep on the ground on mats near the fire, so as to be warmer than they would be on the platform. They lay up a stock of dry wood, with which they fill their cabins, to burn in winter.
At the extremity of the cabins there is a space, where they preserve their Indian corn, which they put into great casks made of the bark of trees and placed in the middle of their encampment [au milieu de leur logement]. They have pieces of wood suspended, on which they put their clothes, provisions, and other things, for fear of the mice, of which there are great numbers.
In one of these cabins there may be twelve fires, and twenty-four families. It smokes excessively, from which it follows that many receive serious injury to the eyes, so that they lose their sight towards the close of life. There is no window nor any opening, except that in the upper part of their cabins for the smoke to escape. They sometimes change their villages at intervals of ten, twenty, or thirty years, and transfer them to a distance of one, two, or three leagues from the preceding situation, except when compelled by their enemies to dislodge, in which case they retire to a greater distance, as the Antouhonorons, who went some forty to fifty leagues.
This is the form of their dwellings, which are separated from each other some three or four paces, for fear of fire, of which they are in great dread. Second translation: "Their lodges [cabannes] are fashioned like bowers [tonnelles] or arbors, covered with tree-bark, twenty-five to thirty fathoms long more or less, and six wide, leaving in the middle a passage from ten to twelve feet wide which runs from one end to the other.
On both sides is a sort of platform, four feet in height, on which they sleep in summer to escape the annoyance of fleas of which they have many, and in winter they lie beneath on mats near the fire in order to be warmer than on top of the platform.
They gather a supply of dry wood and fill their cabins with it, to burn in winter, and at the end of these cabins is a space where they keep their Indian corn, which they put in great casks, made of tree-bark, in the middle of their lodge [au milieu de leur logement]. Pieces of wood are suspended on which they put their clothes, provisions and other things for fear of mice which are in great numbers. In one such cabin there will be twelve fires, which make twenty-four households, and there is smoke in good earnest, causing many to have great eye troubles, to which they are subject, even towards the end of their lives losing their sight; for there is no window nor opening except in the roof of their cabins by which, the smoke can escape.
This is all that can be said and known of their ways; for I have described to you completely, as far as they may be known, these dwellings of these people, which is also that of all the tribes that dwell in these parts of the country. They sometimes change their village site after ten, twenty, or thirty years, and move it one, two or three leagues from the former spot, if they are not forced by their enemies to decamp and move to a greater distance, as did the Onondagas, some forty to fifty leagues.
This is the shape of their dwellings, which are separated from one another about three to four yards for fear of fire which they greatly dread" [Champlain ]. The two preceding translations differ in some important ways, I have compared both with the French transcription that accompanies one of them Champlain , and have found that the translations are accurate or at least not misleading except at one crucial point.
One translates cabanne as "lodge", the other as "cabin. However, the translation of "logement" is critical: one source translates it as "lodge" but the other translates it as "encampment," making the passage seem to mean that the Indians kept their casks of corn outside their houses in the middle of the village. Further, both translators err in translating "milieu" as "middle" rather than "midst.
Then above these palisades there are galleries or watch-towers, which they call Ondaqua, and these they stock with stones in war-time to hurl upon the enemy, and water to put out the fire that might be laid against their palisades. The Hurons mount up to them by means of a ladder, very ill-made and difficult to climb, and defend their ramparts with great courage and skill. The chief town formerly contained two hundred large lodges, each filled with many households; but of late, on account of lack of wood and because the land began to be exhausted, it has been reduced in size, divided in two, and rebuilt in another more convenient locality.
The towns on their frontiers and nearer to their enemies are always the best fortified, in respect both of their enclosing walls, two lances high or thereabouts, and of their gates and entrances, which are closed with bars and through which one is forced to pass turning sideways and not striding straight in, and also in regard to the site.
This they know very well how to choose, taking care that it shall be adjoining some good stream, on a spot slightly elevated and surrounded by a natural moat if possible, and that the circuit of the walls shall be rounded and the town compact, yet with a good space left empty between the lodges and the walls so as to be able the better to fight and defend themselves against the enemies' attacks, without omitting to make sorties as opportunity offers.
There are certain districts where they move their towns and villages every ten, fifteen, or thirty years, more or less, and they do so only when they find themselves too far away from wood, which they have to carry on their backs tied up and attached to a collar resting and supported on their forehead; but in winter their custom is to make a kind of sledge which they call Arocha, made of long boards of the wood of the white cedar, on which they put their burden, and with rackets [snowshoes] tied to their feet draw their load over the snow without any difficulty.
They move their town or village [also] when in course of time the land is so exhausted that their corn can no longer be grown on it in the usual perfection for lack of manure; because they do not understand cultivating the ground nor putting the seed anywhere else than in the usual holes. At the two sides there is a kind of bench four or five feet high, extending from one end of the lodge to the other, on which they sleep in summer to escape the importunity of the fleas; of these they have a great many both because of their dogs, which supply them in good earnest, and because of the water made there by the children; and in winter they sleep below on mats near the fire for greater warmth, and lie close to one another, the children in the warmest and highest place as a rule and the parents next, and there is no space between them or separation either at the foot or at the pillow, no more above than below, and they make no other preparation for sleeping than to lie down in the same place where they were sitting and to muffle up their head in their robe, without other covering or bed.
Al1 the women help in collecting this store of wood; it is done in the month of March or April, and by means of this arrangement every household is supplied with what is needed in a few days. They use only very good wood, preferring to go far in search of it rather than to take green wood or what makes smoke; for this reason they always keep up a clear fire with a small quantity of fuel; and if they do not find trees that are quite dry they fell those which have dry branches, breaking these into splinters and cutting them to an equal length, like the faggots in Paris.
They do not make up faggots of twigs, nor use the trunks of the biggest trees felled; they leave these to rot on the ground because they have no saw for sawing them up, nor the means of breaking them in pieces unless they are dry and rotten. We were not so particular, and were satisfied with what was nearest to our hut, so as not to spend our whole time in this occupation. In one lodge there are many fires, and at each fire are two families, one on one side, the other on the other; some lodges will have as many as eight, ten, or twelve fires, which means twenty-four families, others fewer, according as they are long or short.
There is smoke in them in good earnest, which causes many to have very serious trouble with their eyes, as there is neither window nor opening, except the one in the roof of the lodge through which the smoke escapes. At each end there is a porch, and the principal use of these porches is to hold the large vats, or casks of tree-bark in which they store their Indian corn after it has been well dried and shelled.
In the midst of the lodge are suspended two big poles which they call Ouaronta; on them they hang their pots, and put their clothing, provisions, and other things, for fear of mice and to keep the things dry.
But the fish, of which they lay in a supply for winter after it is smoked, they store in casks of tree-bark which they cal1 Acha, except Leinchataon, which is a fish they do not clean and which they hang with cords in the roof of the lodge, because if it were packed in any cask it would smell too bad and become rotten at once. It is true that they rarely wrong one another, but still there are sometimes rascals who commit offences when they think they will not be found out.
This happens chiefly in the matter of eatables" [Sagard ]. Sagard apparently copied and embellished Champlain's description, which Champlain published after his voyage. Sagard repeats Champlain's phrases in the original French word for word, inserting additional detail here and there.
Where they agree, they should be treated as one source, not two. Sagard's estimates of households by which he means family units consisting of a couple and their children in longhouses leads to a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10 households per longhouse. We know that households came in pairs, each pair sharing a hearth and occupying facing longhouse compartments.
Consequently the real range of family units per longhouse must be stated in even numbers, Saguaros figures thus lead to a range of compartments and families, or hearths per house. Later he says that some longhouses might have as many as 8, l0, or 12 hearths, but these are clearly being cited as unusually long examples. Besides, he appears again to have simply elaborated on a statement borrowed from Champlain.
There are no different stories; there is no cellar, no chamber, no garret. It has neither window nor chimney, only a miserable hole in the top of the cabin, left to permit the smoke to escape" [JR]. Brebeuf seems confused about longhouse lengths.
He says that the longhouses are about four fathoms brasses in width, and archaeological evidence indicates that his fathom must be about 5. It seems unlikely that a house having a width of 21 feet 6. Perhaps Brebeuf intended to write "twelve" douze rather than "two" deux.
Whatever the case, his range of fathoms is not problematic, for it suggests lengths ranging from l6m to 64m, lengths that correspond well with archaeologically known cases. They do not hesitate to inconvenience themselves for each other on these occasions. The matter is esteemed of such importance that, when a village is built, they purposely put up one cabin much larger than the others, sometimes making it as much as twenty-five or thirty brasses [fathoms] in length" [JR].
They crossed four or five poles in a ring, making a sort of little arbor, which they surrounded with the bark of a tree. They crowded within this, twelve or thirteen of them, almost upon one another. In the middle there were five or six large red-hot stones" [JR]. Their cabins are made of large sheets of bark in the shape of an arbor, long, wide, and high in proportion; some of them are 70 feet long" [JR].
It is placed upon poles laid and suspended the whole length of the cabin" [JR]. But neither of them [Algonquin or Huron] have any other bed than either some branches of trees, used by the former, or some bark or matting, used by the latter, --without tables, benches, or anything of the kind, the earth or some bark serving them for every purpose" [JR].
They are five or six fathoms wide, high in proportion and long according to the number of fires. Each fire has twenty or twenty-five more feet in length than those with only one [fire], none ever exceeding thirty or forty feet.
Each of these lodges rests on four posts for each fire. These posts are the base and support of the entire structure. Poles are planted all around, that is to say all along the two sides and on the two gable ends, to hold the sheets of elm bark which form the walls and are bound to them with strips made of the inner bast or second bark of white wood [basswood Tilia americana L.
Vents in the ceiling prevented the smoke from the hearths from billowing inside the home. Entrances to the longhouse were often covered with hide. A primary use of the longhouse was to serve as a place of residence. Several families, numbering about six to eight members each, likely resided in the same home. Prior to , longhouses housed about 20 to 30 people. Later, they housed as many as people, as their size doubled. Longhouses were also used as places of storage. Dried meats and corn , as well as other food and personal belongings, were stored on platforms built high up on the walls of the longhouse.
Firewood was stacked in areas near the entrances at either end of the structure. Covered pits dug inside the house also stored food. Aside from their practical uses, longhouses served as sites of political gatherings and ceremonies.
Followers of the Handsome Lake Religion , for example, continue to refer to the buildings that house their ceremonies as longhouses. The term also carried philosophical and cultural meaning. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy — originally made up of the Mohawk , Oneida , Seneca , Cayuga and Onondaga the Tuscarora joined later — characterized their association as a longhouse of five fires.
In this way, these nations themselves represented the longhouse, demonstrating the centrality of the longhouse to Iroquoian culture. While longhouses are no longer used to house families, they remain important to Iroquoian history and culture. Many sacred ceremonies and cultural gatherings are still held in longhouses.
Reconstructions of these historic structures can also be found in a variety of museums and cultural centres, such as the Museum of Ontario Archaeology and Sainte Marie Among the Hurons also in Ontario , where visitors can learn about the history of Iroquoian village life first-hand.
Munson and Susan M. Jamieson Museum of Ontario Archeology Visit this museum to see a reconstructed longhouse and experience what life in a longhouse might have been like years ago. Visit their site to learn more.
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