The Plains Indian Tipi

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The liner-which might be described as "a tipi without a top within a tipi" - is very easy to make and Figure 6 gives all the basic information you'll need.

Fifteen identical tapered panels - each six feet long, 34 1/4" wide at the top and 48 3/4" across the bottom - will be needed to make your liner. The panels can be made from any lightweight material butperhaps surprisingly - it is more important that the finished liner be waterproof than that the tipi cover itself be so treated.

Since it will not be exposed directly to the sun, the Laubins recommend using heavy bleached muslin here and treating the finished liner with a wax compound. Balancing tradition and reasonable cost against other considerations, that seems a good way to go although some of the newer coated fabrics should be very attractive to folks with a healthier pocketbook. GERRY'S and HOLUBAR in Boulder, Colorado, THE SKI HUT in Berkeley, California and RECREATIONAL EQUIPMENT in Seattle, Washington are a few of the specialized outfitters that can supply the more modern materials. There's nothing wrong with 8 oz. duck canvas, either.

"In the winter, our villages stood on low, sheltered ground near the river, where the wind and cold could not reach us; in summer they were moved to higher ground where they could catch the cool winds."

THE ARAPAHO WAY
Althea Bass

"No tent is so sturdy against wind and weather as a good tip[-the tilted cone with its back toward the prevailing storm winds, braced by the long slope of the forward poles; the weight of the poles themselves with their pointed butts piercing the earth; the taut conical cover offering no hold to the wind, no pockets or folds to catch water; the anchor rope taut from the apex to the ground Inside the tent; the pegs pinning the cover firmly to the ground-all these things make the tipi a strong, dependable protection."

THE INDIAN TIPI
The Laubins

"Now, when ye set her up ye tie three poles together-so-an' set 'em up first, then lean the other poles around, except one, an' lash them by carrying the rope around a few times."

Caleb Clark

If you can't obtain the muslin or other fabric in a 72" width, 36" material sewed together with a flat seam will work quite well.

Cut the panels (reversing every other one to save material, as shown in Detail 6e), seam them together and hem the top and bottom of the liner. If you rough cut all 15 sections 34 1/2 to 35" across the top and 48 1/2 to 49" at the bottom, the finished liner should go completely around the inside and lap generously . . . depending upon how the poles are placed, how tightly the liner is tied, etc.

The Laubins - who have lived months or years in a tipi to my days in these shelters - have refined their liner design as noted in Figure 6. They recommend cutting only 12 of the 15 panels (C through N) to the full 34 3/4 " top and 48 3/4" bottom dimensions. Sections "B" and "O", they say, should measure just 31 3/4" across the top and "A" - for the door - should be cut 29" across the top and 41" at the bottom for a neater fit.

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