Some Facts About the Long House of the Native American

Longhouse has an old history. Research shows that the Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest and around the country were one of the first people to build this type of houses. To them, it was a place where issues pertaining to their community were discussed, such as, welcoming visitors from other communities. It was a place where oral tradition was preserved and passed from one generation to the next, and where people came together, to tell and listen to oral renditions, and stories. It was a place that symbolizes the unity of a people.

    The Native North American Indians built longhouses in varieties of form of five to seven meters wide (16-23feet). Materials for construction include, sharpened and fire-hardened poles, (up to 1000 samplings for a 50 meter house), grasses and leaves for roofing, stripes of bark for erecting the walls, and woods.

    During construction, the sharpened and fire-hardened poles is driven into the ground, the stripes of bark is used to form walls, by woven horizontally through the lines of the poles’ with doors located in one end of the house for exit. Though in some cases, different doors are built into sides, most especially in longer houses. Without proper ventilation, fireplaces were built in most longhouses, which kept them warm during cold weathers. Leaves and grasses from plant and shrubs, provides an ideal material for thatched roofing. Though, the style of roofing varies among constructors. The roofs are pegged, slanted and pitched to various degrees depending upon the rainfall. The front of some of these longhouses is often decorated with an integral mural of numerous drawings of faces and heraldic crest icons of raven, bear, whale, and other known valuable animals.

    Research gathered that there were eight tribes or ethnic groups along the North American pacific coast with similar or sort of longhouse building traditions. These tribes are: Multnomah, Haida, Tsimshian, Tlingit, Mkah, Clatsop and CoastSalish (tribe). Apart from preserving their culture and tradition, these longhouses also provide a place for safety and belonging.

    Today, we see that a program was created in the late 1960’s to serve the Native American students at the university of Oregon, United States, for the sake of posterity. Though, the longest continually operating longhouse on the college campus is deteriorating and needs to be urgently replaced.