Architectural Details
From afar, tipis display a very symmetrical form but on closer inspection, their actual tilted cone" shape comes into view. Steepest in the rear, the tipi wall slopes more gradually on the front side toward the doorway, an angle emphasized by the smoke flaps at the top of the lodge that are held forward by long exterior poles. Construction of the lodge begins with a framework of three or four poles upon which the remaining interior posts rest. The tripod frame is most common among the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Lakota Sioux & Pawnee. The doorway often faces east to the rising sun, & is no more than a gap in the hide covers that can be secured with bone or wood pins.
Up to eight prepared bison hides (or skins of other large game) were needed to cover a single tipi ten feet in diameter. Historical photographs & the occasional rock art panels show that exterior surfaces were often brightly painted with scenes featuring animals, people, spirit beings, or other symbols. In the nineteenth century, canvas covers quickly replaced hides as the bison herds dwindled from hunting pressure &, especially, wholesale slaughter by the US government sanction. Canvas has the added benefit of being more lightweight & thus easier to transport.
Fireplaces are located a bit off-center in a floor pit, or may be placed outside the lodge in warmer months. Sleeping space is arranged around the lodge wall, & may be segregated by gender, as was also true of sitting space. Storage of small articles likewise is around the edges, between the beds. For example, in a Sioux or Kiowa tipi the men generally sit on the north side & the women on the south side of the floor space. In a larger lodge or in tipis of ceremonial function, more central floor space may also be reserved for special activities, the specifics of which vary by tribal affiliation.
PAST & FUTURE
In the mountains & Western Slope of Colorado, the traditional Ute Indian lodge was a smaller wickiup either freestanding, like a tipi, or a lean-to built against a large tree. However, by the seventeenth century, the Utes had acquired horses from the Spanish to the south & began making more frequent forays onto the plains. There they hunted bison & adapted a number of practices from their neighbors, including given their newfound access to abundant bison products, the larger hide-covered tipi. Theirs was a four pole-framed tipi, a design similar to that of their northern cousins, the Eastern Shoshone.
Wickiups (WICK-ee-ups) were not meant to live in like your house today. They're more like the way you use your tent when you go camping. You keep your stuff inside, & you sleep in there sometimes (especially if it looks like rain). but otherwise you spend most of your time outside-you cook outside, & you play outside, & you go the bathroom outside (privately, away from other people, & sometimes you sleep outside.
But sometimes people did build fires inside their wickiup, to keep warm. People built fire on the ground in a circle of stones, or sometimes had a large flat stone in front of the fire like a hearth. They brought piles of juniper tree bark inside the wickiup to use as beds.
When Ute people were traveling around gathering food, they sometimes made a simple shelter to get out of the sun or the wind by just breaking a tree branch partway through & bending it down to the ground. They also built platforms in trees like your treehouse to store food on or to use as lookout posts.
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