Free images related to the living structures
of Native North Americans 

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The Images below have been posted with the kind permission of 
the Native Child and Family Services of Toronto

The following images were taken at Grundy Lake Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.

As part of the restoration of cultural practices, the Native Child and Family Services of Toronto operates a residential summer camp at Grundy Lake for Native children and families from the Greater Toronto Area.  The goal of the camp is to foster positive Native identities and to have fun while doing so!  The camp is located south of the city of Sudbury, at Grundy Lake Provincial Park in Northern Ontario, in an area that was originally Ojibwa territory (Anishnabe).  The images below are of the tepees that campers live in while at the camp.  

Originally, Native peoples lived in "wigwams" which were built with poles and covered with sheets of birch bark.  However, when they became nomadic to follow buffalo herds, the wigwam changed according to their needs.  Referred to now as tipis, the birch bark was replaced with sewn buffalo hides.  The Native peoples of the Grundy Lake area usually lived in Wigwam style - an elongated tepee covered in birch bark.  (See the longhouses of the Wampanoag People of Massachusetts here.)

The tipis below are made out of a canvas material.

►  Did you know....

that the name for the structure below has a variety of spellings?  Although the word comes from the Lakota Sioux word tipistola, the various spellings are:  Teepee,  Tee Pee, Tepee or Tipi.  Of those individuals that I spoke with, I took note that most people used the "tepee" spelling, however, Native peoples preferred "tipi". 

Tepee - Tipi - 4
A tipi could be packed and moved quickly.  
The ends of two poles were pulled by a horse with the other two ends dragging along the ground.
The covering of the tipi along with all possessions were easily transported in this manner.

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Tepee - Tipi - 6
The pattern for making a tipi is a semi-circle with two smoke flaps.
When the tipi is erected, it forms a cone shape.

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Tepee - Tipi - 7
The edges of the semi-circle are overlapped and held together with "lacing pins"
made out of willow.

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Tepee - Tipi - 9
The material above the tipi's opening, acts like a door.  Willow saplings are inserted into door 
pockets to stiffen the door and provide support across the opening.

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Tepee - Tipi - 3  Detail showing door attachment.

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Tepee - Tipi - 1
A properly set up tipi is not round in shape - it is slightly oval.
It should also be a little tilted, steeper at the back than the front.

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Tepee - Tipi - 11
Air comes in at the base of the tipi and is drawn out at the top smoke hole.

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Tepee - Tipi - 2
The hole in the roof of a tipi is called the "oculus".

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Tepee - Tipi - 5
Smoke flaps are used to control the draught of a fire burning inside.

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Tepee - Tipi - 10

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Tepee - Tipi - 8
Lacing pins are tapered at one end and are about the size of a pencil and made out of willow.

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