Native American architecture—Northwest Coast
Native American architecture of the Northwest Coast is characterized by the construction of large, multifunctional plank houses that served as living quarters for extended families, community meeting places, and venues for performances. These houses were typically built from cedar wood, featuring rectangular, gabled designs that varied in size according to the wealth and status of the owner, with lineage leaders having the largest structures. The architectural style differed between northern and southern regions, with northern homes showcasing gabled roofs and vertical plank walls, while southern houses exhibited shed or Wakashan roof styles.
The construction process involved skilled artisans, and the commissioning of a house was an important social event often concluded with a potlatch celebration, which included the raising of a totem pole and the naming of the house to reflect its lineage's heritage. Additional structures commonly included summer houses, sweatlodges, and smokehouses, which served various practical purposes such as seasonal fishing and food storage. Over time, European influences introduced new materials and architectural elements, blending traditional practices with contemporary designs. This rich architectural heritage reflects the social organization, cultural values, and environmental adaptations of the Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples.
Native American architecture—Northwest Coast
Tribes affected: Chinook, Cowlitz, Haida, Haisla, Kwakiutl, Nisqually, Nootka, Quileute, Salish, Samish, Siuslaw, Snohomish, Tillamook, Tlingit, Tsinshian, Umpqua, other Northwest Coast tribes
Significance: The abundance of the environment and the ready availability of wood enabled groups in the Northwest Coast area to construct large, permanent plank buildings
Primary living quarters for Northwest Coast Indians accommodated large extended families up to fifty or more persons. Family houses served also as meeting halls for clan events as well as theaters for annual performances. These plank houses faced the shoreline, with a lineage leader’s house in the middle and less important family homes on the perimeter. Houses varied in size depending upon the wealth and status of the owner, with the chief having the largest house. Cedar, the prevalent building wood, was hewn into planks to create rectangular, gabled longhouses that regionally varied but could average 60 by 100 feet in area. The commissioning of a house was restricted to the wealthy, and the building of houses was designated to trained specialists, usually of no relation to the owner. Every workman, from skilled craftsman to manual laborer, was paid for each assigned task. Architectural relief carvings or paintings required additional artists and ceremonial feasting at its completion. A potlatch celebration, often including the erection of a totem pole, was expected by the community in order to consecrate the house and the status of the owner. At this time, principal houses were given names that referred to totemic crests of the lineage or to a distinct quality of the house.
Northern House Style
Among the Tsimshian, Haida, Tlingit, and Haisla (the northern Kwakiutl), large houses for wealthy extended families measured up to 50 feet by 60 feet and had gabled roofs and vertical plank walls. The first elements constructed on the site were the corner poles. These were raised into foundation holes by pulling and wedging them into position. Tall ridgepoles supported heavy posts at the front and back, which in turn supported the roof planks with a central opening for a smoke hole. The horizontal beams were elevated into the notched holes of the vertical uprights, followed by the elevation of cross beams. Once the structural framework was constructed, the tapered vertical wall planks were put into place. The entrance was an oval or circular doorway cut into the base of the center ridgepole facing the shoreline. The interior contained a planked, platform floor with bench steps (sometimes movable) leading down to a central fire pit located directly below the roof smoke hole, which, often fitted with a movable shutter, allowed directed interior ventilation. The upper platform provided assigned sleeping space for each family, with the lineage head and his family occupying the rear. The center ridgepole, interior vertical support poles, interior planked screen, and the house front typically exhibited elaborate carved and painted totem crests that validated the ancestral legacy of the house owner. By the nineteenth century, European architectural influences were evident in the introduction of framed doorways and windows in traditional houses, the use of nails instead of notched joints, commercially sawed lumber, and stoves (replacing the central fire pit).
Southern House Style
Two types of house construction differentiate the southern style that dominated throughout the region where the Coast Salish lived: the shed roof and the Wakashan. Unlike the northern house style, the walls of horizontal planks created a shell around the house frame. The pitch of the shed roof houses was created by the shoreline vertical poles being taller than the rear support poles. The center-sloping gabled roof of the Wakashan house was created by the center ridge beam being of a larger diameter than the two eave beams. Shed-roof houses averaged about 38 by 80 feet, though they were sometimes much longer when expanded by building end on end. The Wakashan house measured from 36 to 40 feet wide by 40 to 150 feet long.
Secondary Structures
The most common secondary architectural structures included summer houses, sweatlodges, smokehouses, mortuary houses, and decks. Roughly built structures, often without flooring, served to house families during the summer fishing and gathering activities. When summer activities occurred annually in the same place, the framework for these houses was frequently permanent, while the planks and materials for the side and roof were brought by the owners each season. Additionally, a summer house could serve as a drying area for the fish in the absence of a separate drying structure. A smokehouse was a plank framework with horizontal poles functioning as drying racks for smoking fish. Rough, enclosed plank structures on stilt poles served as warehouses for fish storage. Sweatlodges were typically walled with tightly fitted planks or logs supporting a roof of boards and earth. With sand floors, fire pit, and an entrance toward the water, this structure made a controllable interior space for steambaths. Small house replicas (8 feet by 6 feet) or small shed-roof shelters built of logs or planks, with platforms to hold the deceased, functioned as grave houses. Open-deck structures or raised platforms on stilts constructed on the beach provided designated gathering areas in fair weather.
Bibliography
Drucker, Philip. Indians of the Northwest Coast. Garden City, N.Y.: Natural History Press, 1963.
Emmons, George Thornton. The Tlingit Indians. Edited by Fredrica de Laguna. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991.
Highwater, Jamake. Arts of the Indian Americas: Leaves from the Sacred Tree. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.
Olsen, Ronald L. Adze, Canoe, and House Types of the Northwest Coast. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991.
Stewart, Hillary. Cedar: Tree of Life to the Northwest Coast Indians. Vancouver, B.C.: Douglas & McIntyre, 1984.