How Did the Myaamia Design Their Villages?
How did the Myaamia Design Their Villages?
Myaamia people had two types of villages - winter villages and summer villages. Summer villages were large and located near streams and rivers. There were paths on either side of the river, paths leading to other villages, and paths leading to important meeting places like natural springs. Some homes were dome shaped lodges covered with bark and reed mats called wiikiaami. These buildings had a fire pit in the center, storage at the back, and places to sleep along the sides. Myaamia people also built homes that were similar to pioneer log cabins in their summer villages. Each village also had a longhouse where people held councils. Later in the 1700s, the longhouses were built like log cabins, only much longer. Homes were mainly used for storage and sleeping. People spent most of their time outside and did their cooking and eating outside when the weather was good. Summer villages had fields for corn nearby and gardens for squash, melons, and beans. Myaamia people stayed in summer villages for eight months out of the year. In the winter, Myaamia people moved to family-centered hunting camps on the edges of the prairies in the west. There they hunted bison, deer, and elk. They did not lack food in the winter and stayed warm using the reed mats they carried with them to cover smaller dome shaped wiikiaami.