The Plains Indian Tipi

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Pick out the four heaviest poles. Three will be used for the foundation tripod and the fourth will be the lifting pole. Spread out the tipi cover and use it to measure the tripod poles as shown in the upper left corner of Figure 7. Note that, since the finished cover is not a true half-circle, this method automatically and correctly locates the tripod tie point lower on poles N and S than on pole D (remember, it's a tilted cone).

Good tipi poles are sharpened on each end. If you intend to plant the butts of the tripod poles a few inches in the ground (as some, but not all, Indians did), allow for that right now and mark the three supports where they cross so you won't have to remeasure every time you erect the tent.

Using one end of a 45 foot length of 1/2" rope, tie the three poles with a clove hitch as illustrated, wrap the rope around the poles three or four times and finish with two half hitches.

Put the butts of poles S and D about where they'll be in the pitched tipi and, while someone holds taut the loose end of the 1/2" rope, raise the tripod by walking up under the ends of S and N. When the poles are almost vertical, swing the butt of N across to it's approximate final position. This locks the tripod and gives it a twisted dog-chasing-its-tail appearance where the poles cross and are tied.

. . . the long rope that binds the poles is carried down under, and fastened tight to a stake that serves for anchor . . . "

Caleb Clark

"Now tie the top o' the cover to the top o' the last pole by the short lash-rope, hist the pole into place - that hists the cover, too, ye see an' ye swing it round with the smokepoles an' fasten the two edges together with the wooden pins."

Caleb Clark

"The opening that made the entrance was covered with a skin or a length of canvas held down by a strip of wood that weighted the bottom. This was the only kind of door we knew, long ago. In fine weather it was raised on poles to make a kind of awning over the opening."

THE ARAPAHO WAY
Althea Bass

"Wall, some jest lets the edges sag together, but the best teepees has a door made of the same stuff as the cover put tight on a saplin' frame an' swung from a lacin' pin."

Caleb Clark

"Real hot weather the thing looks like a spider with skirts on and held high... "

Caleb Clark

"in winter, there were windbreaks to shelter our lodges. The women went to the river in the fall and cut a kind of tall grass ...The women bound this grass into panels and set them up like a stockade fence outside our tipis, to shut out the wind and the snow. Then they pegged down the lodge cloth and laid sod or earth over it to seal it. When that was done, we were snug for the winter, however stormy it might be outside."

THE ARAPAHO WAY
Althea Bass

"There was room for everything in our lodge, and to us it never seemed crowded. Bags of meat and fruit that my mother had dried hung from the lodge poles, out of our way; and around the outer circle of the room, In the space where the beds were and underneath them, folded robes and clothing, our toys, and our mother's tools and materials for handwork were kept."

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