Native American architecture—Arctic

Tribes affected: Aleut, Inuit, Yupik

Significance: Although the domed snow house is the most widely recognized Arctic habitation, a number of other types of structures have been used by groups in the Arctic culture area

Throughout the Arctic, housing styles were largely a function of four factors: local weather conditions, availability of raw materials, requirements for mobility, and household size and organization. While the domed snow house (in common parlance, the igloo) is the form of shelter most commonly associated with the Arctic, it actually had a very limited distribution. Many Arctic groups, such as the Yupik of south-western Alaska, the Aleut, and the West Greenlanders, never built snow houses. Rather, there was a wide range of architectural styles, including aboveground plank houses, semi-subterranean sod and rock houses, semi-subterranean log houses, and walrus-skin houses elevated on stilts.

Snow Houses

Without a doubt, the dome-shaped snow house was the most remarkable architectural achievement of Arctic populations. At the time of European contact, the snow house was the primary winter shelter in most areas of the Central and Eastern Canadian Arctic. In these areas, a typical strategy involved building large snow house communities on the ocean ice from which hunters would depart daily to engage in breathing-hole seal hunting. It was essential that the right kind of snow be used: hard-packed, granular snow that was uniformly compressed by blowing winds. The snow house was built by arranging the snow blocks, cut with a large snow knife, in a circular pattern spiraling upward. The spiral ensured that each snow block placed in line had another block to lean against. This made the construction process easier and maximized the structural integrity of the shelter.

Any snow house that was to be occupied for more than one or two nights would have a porch attached to provide storage space and protection from the wind. The entrance generally sloped downward so as to create a cold trap. At least half of the interior included a raised sleeping and sitting platform, which provided protection from the cold air on the floor below. Caribou skins or musk ox skins would be placed on the sleeping platform for additional insulation. Often, a small hole would be punched through the roof to provide some air circulation and hence a guarantee against asphyxiation. A piece of ice might also be placed into the wall to provide natural lighting.

Semi-Subterranean Houses

Far more common than the snow house was the semi-subterranean house, found from East Greenland to South Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Excavated several feet into the ground, these shelters generally consisted of a wood, stone, or whalebone framework covered with insulating sod. Because of the great effort involved in building and maintaining such shelters, they tended to be used by groups with year-round or seasonally occupied villages. In North Alaska, houses were rectangular and constructed of a whalebone and driftwood frame covered by sod. A wood planked floor marked the main living area, which included a raised sleeping platform. Entrance to the house was through a passageway which sloped from ground level downward to a depth of about 4 to 5 feet. On either side of this passageway were side rooms used for storage, cooking, and food preparation. The long tunnel ended under the main living area, which was entered through a trapdoor in the floor. This main living area was usually kept warm by a soapstone lamp, although body heat alone was sometimes adequate to keep it warm. A membrane-covered skylight provided light to the interior.

In the Bering Sea region, easier access to wood resulted in this material being a more significant component in house construction. These houses tended to be slightly larger and were often made with a frame of whole logs covered with sod. The main living areas often had sleeping platforms on all three sides as opposed to the single sleeping platform of the North Alaskan house. A central fireplace fueled by wood and placed under a square smoke hole in the roof was the primary source of heat. Such dwellings occasionally had two entrances: a ground-level entrance for summer use and an underground passageway for winter use. Farther south, among Chugach and Koniag Eskimos, wood was even more evident in house construction. Although these houses were semi-subterranean, they lacked the sloping entranceways characteristic of more northern groups. Even in winter, entry was generally through a ground-level doorway.

The Aleut constructed large semi-subterranean houses which have been documented to range between 70 and 200 feet in length. These houses had log supports and roof frames made of either wood or whalebone. Woven grasses were placed on the roofs, which were then covered with sod. Since the Aleut lived in a far milder climate than most Eskimos, an underground passageway was not necessary. Rather, entrance into the house was down one or more notched log ladders positioned under the structure’s smoke holes. Since these longhouses generally accommodated a large number of related families, often an entire village of thirty to forty people, each family was assigned a living area along the outside walls. Grasses were woven into partitions to separate the living areas.

Semi-subterranean longhouses were also used in Labrador, West Greenland, and East Greenland, but these generally had underground passageways to function as cold traps. In East Greenland, these longhouses invariably housed an entire village. Given the scarcity of wood, house walls were constructed of stone and sod, while roofs were made of sod placed over driftwood rafters.

In North Greenland, the Polar Eskimo had extremely limited access to wood, so they constructed their semi-subterranean winter houses of cantilevered stone covered by sod and snow. These shelters tended to be small and triangular-shaped, rarely housing more than one nuclear family, and were often dug into a hillside. A similar style of structure, called a qarmaq, was used by certain Central Arctic groups. Usually occupied only during transitional seasons, the qarmaq was made of a circular wall of stone, sod, or snowblocks covered over with a skin roof.

Aboveground Wood Houses

Aboveground wood houses had a limited distribution, since they required ready access to timber. They were the dominant form of summer residence among Yupik groups in southwestern and southern Alaska. In the Yukon-Kuskokwim region, for example, these houses were built with horizontally placed logs for the side walls and with vertically placed planks for the front and back walls. The gabled roof was covered with wood planks and bark. Since the houses were occupied only during the warm months of the year, they were built aboveground with ground-level entrances. These houses were typically found at spring and summer fishing camps.

Tents, Stilt Houses, and Men’s Houses

Skin tents were ubiquitous throughout the Arctic region. Typically made of caribou or seal skin, they were the primary form of summer residence throughout much of the region, especially among those groups that were highly nomadic in summer. Even the Alaskan Yupik, with their wooden summer houses, used tents while traveling or hunting over long distances.

Perhaps the most unusual houses in the Arctic were the summer stilt houses of King Island, located in the Bering Strait. These small houses were usually erected next to the semi-subterranean winter houses and were boxlike structures with walrus hide walls. Their elevation on wooden stilts was necessary given the steep coastline of the island and the lack of level ground for building.

Ceremonial men’s houses constituted an important part of village life throughout most of Alaska. Although large ceremonial snow houses were sometimes built by Central Arctic groups for midwinter games and dances, permanent ceremonial houses were not found anywhere in the Central or Eastern Arctic. Throughout Alaska, ceremonial houses were built in a style similar to regular residences, although somewhat larger. They were regarded as men’s houses, but women were allowed to visit and participate in certain ceremonies. In North Alaska, each ceremonial house (karigi) was associated with one or more whaling crews. Among the Yupik of southwestern Alaska, the men of the village slept and ate in the ceremonial house (qasgi). These houses were also used for sweatbaths and for important religious ceremonies such as the Bladder Feast. Some of these houses are reported to have been large enough to seat up to five hundred people.

Bibliography

Crowell, Aron. “Dwellings, Settlements, and Domestic Life.” In Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska, edited by William Fitzhugh and Aron Crowell. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988.

Damas, David, ed. Arctic. Vol. 5 in Handbook of North American Indians. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1984.

Nabokov, Peter, and Robert Easton. Native American Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Nelson, Edward. The Eskimo About Bering Strait. Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology for the Years 1896-1897. Reprint. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983.

Oswalt, Wendell H. Alaskan Eskimos. San Francisco: Chandler, 1967.