2012. július 25., szerda
(apacs fűkunyhó és wigwam helyett)
1894. oldal, csak kép.
Van caddo fűkunyhó is. 1879. oldal, csak szöveg.
á, ez még reménytelenebb...
3.VI.5.t Wichita (OK)
A Caddoan-speaking people of possible Arkansas origin the Ousita or Tawakoni are known by the name given to them by the Choctaw, a Mississippi people of whom some moved to Oklahoma. They were called w\a chitoh, or 'big arbour', in recognition of their large houses. The Wichita were an agricultural people who traded with the Plains Indians from whom they adopted the skin tipi for war or hunting expeditions. An alliance with the Comanche against the Osage led to several decades of unrest and considerably reduced numbers. They returned to the Indian Territory (later, Oklahoma) to divide up their land between the five hundred or so survivors.
The 'big arbour' of the Wichita is a large, grass-covered undifferentiated structure which has been noted by explorers since Coronado's expedition report of 1541. This described the houses of the Quivira (the Wichita) in present northeastern Kansas: 'the houses which these Indians have were of straw, and most of them round, and the straw reached down to the ground like a wall' (Bushnell). The Wichita 'grass house' as it has been commonly termed, was built and used until the 1940s, and occasionally later. The ground was prepared by the women,
ciearea or grass ana levelled. A circle was arawn on rnc grouna by the customary means of a stick and rope, and four branched logs or crotches of cedar cut by the men were driven into the ground at the cardmal directions. Other forked posts completed the circle, and horizontal log beams were laid between them and lashed in place.
Four groups of men each sought a long cedar pole, the trees being addressed with an invocation. These were again placed cardinally and tied; further long poles of elm or hemlock, sometimes split, were laid against the framework, placed close together and bound into position with rawhide thongs. Willow rods or osiers were laced horizontally around the structure, securing the inward-curving poles. The upper levels, where the leaning poles were thinner, were drawn taut with a tension ring of twisted grapevine, making the whole a tensile structure. In earlier times four round-headed door openings were provided, but by the late-igth century many houses had two only. One faced east and was used in the morning, the other was opposite and faced the setting sun.
There was no supporting central pole but above the centre at the meeting of the pole frame a cruciform of the first longer and sharpened poles pointed to the four cardinal directions, by which spiritual powers were gathered to help the occupants. According to Fletcher, a separate cruciform was constructed for this purpose. Before thatching, a prayer of dedication to Kin-nikasus, the supreme supernatural being and creator, the 'Man Never Known On Earth', was off^ered here (Curtis). The whole structure was thatched with a thick layer of prairie grass, which was tied to the horizontal rods, a notched log ladder being used when attaching the grass from the inside, the thatchers on the outside standing on the rods of the frame. The thatch was secured in place by further rings of willow rods. Where the rods crossed the leaning poles, thick bunches of grass were tied, producing the deeply ribbed texture evident in early photographs of the Wichita houses. The grass bunch ribs were omitted from some later houses.
On top of the four crossed poles a finial was erected of grass bunches tightly tied and secured to the cross, which symbolized 'the abode in the zenith of the mysterious permeating force that animates all nature' (Fletcher). Below was the fireplace, considered sacred and treated with reverence. A small opening to the east of the crest finial permitted the escape of smoke from the fire. The beds or sleeping couches were made of frameworks of light poles, sometimes integral to the