Welcome to the Museum

of
Native Americans

#1
Door
Homes
Exhibit
Curators
Office

Mrs. Rhew
Mrs. Rhew loves computers. She
especially likes working with all her
students on various computer
projects.

Bibliography
http://bigorrin.org/
http://
nativeamericans.mrdonn.org/southw
est/hopi.html

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Native American
Homes

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Kachina Dolls
The Hopi tribe would carve
Kachina dolls from cottonwood
root. Traditionally, one
cottonwood root would be used
for the body and other pieces
would be glued on. Originally
Kachina dolls were painted
with minerals and vegetable
pigments. Dolls would
represent a spirit in life. Today
Kachina dolls are still made by
women carvers. They are
exquisite and very expensive.
Miniature dolls are extremely
popular.

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Native American Games

Native American enjoyed
playing games just like us,
however most of the games
origins were with the tribal
gods. Games were played to
bring rain, a prosperous
harvest, cure illness and make
evil spirits vanish. Generally
boys and girls played
separately. Boys games tested
their strength, agility and
dexterity. Native Americans
honored their skilled athletes
the same way they honored
brave warriors. Traditionally
some games were used to train
boys for warfare and hunting.

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Transportation
The Hopi tribe rarely traveled
by canoe. The didnt live close
to any rivers or bodies of
water. There were no horses
until the colonists brought
them over from Europe. The
Hopis made a type of sled
called a travois. Dogs would
pull the travois. Tribes would
walk so travel
was very difficult and took a
long time. Hopis started using
horses once Europeans
brought them to the new
world.

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Food
There were no grocery stores
before the colonists came to
North America. Native
Americans would gather food
by hunting, fishing and growing
their own crops. The tribes
were excellent farmers. They
planted and grew crops of
squash, corn and beans.
Women would gather nuts and
fruit while men fished and
hunted deer, antelope and
small game like quail and
rabbit.

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Clothing
Hopi women wore Mantas, a
cotton knee-length dress that
fastened at the right shoulder.
Men wore breechcloths or short
kilts that resemble mens
skirts. Both men and women
wore moccasins made of
deerskin. Men also wore cloth
headbands that tied around
their foreheads instead of
traditional Native American
headdresses. The Hopi would
paint their faces for special
occasions.

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Native American Tepees

Hopis did not live in teepees.
These Native American
structures were the homes of
the Plains Indians. Teepees
were made of buffalo hide.
The hides fastened around long
wooden poles and they
resembled a cone shape.
Teepees were wonderful homes
for the Plains tribes because
they stayed warm in the winter
and were cool in the summer.
Many teepees were large
enough to fit 30 to 40 people.

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Adobe Homes
The Hopi are natives to the
Southwest Arizona region and
the Adobe homes were the
perfect structures for this tribe.
The houses were constructed
using bricks made of baked
clay and straw. Most were
multi-story houses. One unit
was home to a whole family. A
Hopi adobe house can contain
dozens of units. Often an
entire clan would live in one
multi-story home.

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Longhouse
A longhouse was just that a
long house measured not by
feet but by campfires. Some
longhouses had 10 to 12
campfires within the structure.
The houses were designed by
making a frame using long
wood poles. Men would then
tie young trees to the frame
bending and shaping the
structure. Once they had the
shape of the long house, they
would cover the outside in
bark. They added smoke holes
and two doorways, one on
either end. This was the
perfect home for the Iroquois
tribe.

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