The Wampanoag People

Current articles in this section:

1. Maushop Brings His People Home: Dugout Canoe Trip to Martha's Vineyard

2. Holistic History: Including the Wampanoag in a New Exhibit at Plimoth Plantation

3. Stitches in Time: Traditional Wampanoag Sewing

4. Ancient Technology: Building a Wampanoag Home of the 17th Century

Ancient Technology: Building a Wampanoag Home of the 17th Century

By Linda Coombs, Associate Director Wampanoag Indigenous Program

Upon entering the Wampanoag Homesite at Plimoth Plantation, there are two types of Wampanoag homes that can be seen. There is the smaller round wetu (weh t’oo), which is a single family home, and has an outside covering of cattail matting. There is also the 35’ foot long nushweety8 (nuhsh weh t’oo), which is covered with large sheets of bark. A house of this size can be for more than one family, or, as in our case, for a large extended family of a person of status.

In the traditional society of the Wampanoag in the 17th century, both men and women each took part in the building of a house and in the making of a home. Both had their respective responsibilities, and they willingly and happily went about those duties knowing that such partnership was what made the community whole and strong. The men were responsible for the actual construction of the homes and were the ones to harvest the bark for the covering and the sapling poles for the frame. The women gathered both cattail and bulrush reeds to make mats for covering the houses (used alternately with bark) and lining and insulating the homes.

The People did live close to the land and indeed believed themselves to be a part of it. Their lives were conducted in the knowledge that Creator molded our bodies from the Earth and the Trees, with whom we share the breath of life. This closeness enabled the People to fulfill all their material and spiritual needs in not just an adequate way, but in a way of abundance and surety and comfort. After all, that is Creator’s intention for us, as long as we heed the original instructions. So the People knew the ways of the animal and bird relations, of the plant and tree relations, of the wind and the water, the sun and the moon. They knew and were mindful of the cycles of life. The People respected them and allowed them to guide their everyday lives.

And so, when a family was to build a new home, they knew that spring was the right season to collect the bark of the trees to make the covering of the house. Spring is when the sap is running which enables the bark to be easily peeled. When the bark is moist with the sap, it can be bent without cracking to cover the rounded frame of the house. The men knew which types of trees yielded the best bark for covering. They knew how to get the bark off in large sheets that remained undamaged. They placed the sheets on the frame like giant, two-inch thick shingles, save the openings for the smokeholes. Equally as important in this whole process is giving thanks for that material. The lives of the trees were not taken lightly or without proper acknowledgement.

The same is true for the saplings that make the frame. They were also collected from the swamps in the spring. Again, it is the rising sap that allows the saplings to be bent into the rounded arches of the frame without breaking. Their own bark was peeled and used as is for lashing the frame poles together, shrinking as it dried to hold the poles ever more tightly. It could take 40 to 200 saplings for the frame, depending on the size of the house to be built. Each pole had its purpose and particular placement in the frame. Making the proper offerings and ceremonies for the lives of the trees was not something extra, but an integral part of the whole process.

The women gathered the cattails and bulrushes in the swamps and marshes in the late summer. Once harvested, the leaves of the cattail were separated and dried in the sun. Bulrushes were boiled to remove their sap. This left them capable of absorbing moisture and holding heat. When the reeds were ready, the women sewed the cattails into double-sided mats that would channel the rain off the rounded sides of the houses, thereby preventing it from coming in. Once processed, the bulrush were dyed in shades of red and black in traditional family designs that were handed down from one generation to the next. These mats were not only beautiful and decorative, but also held the heat of the fire so well that the nearby snow bank was a welcome cooling-off place to roll in. And again, the cattail and bulrush were offered thanksgiving before cutting for their parts in creating the homes of the People.

For generation after generation after generation after generation, the People knew to build their homes into round or rounded shapes because that is best to heat or cool the house evenly. The fire or fires were placed centrally again to heat most evenly. Sheets of bark were angled above the smoke holes against the rain and snow and wind to prevent them from coming in. The rounded shapes were very difficult for storms and hurricanes to blow over, try as they might. This shape represents the many things in Creation that are round, as well as all cycles and seasons of life. The concept of Thanksgiving was built right in.

Thanksgiving is the acknowledgement that a life is being taken, and to offer the proper prayers, songs, and ceremonies to honor that life. All life was considered sacred because all life is given to us by our Creator. Creator made our beautiful Earth and she is a living being, as is all that comes from her. None of this is forgotten or tossed aside in the building of a home, but was as essential as the bark and poles and mats.

Once built, the houses belonged to the women. As the Earth, the women can bring forth life and that creativity and that new life must be protected and nurtured because they are the future of the People.

Once too old to stand and protect any more, these homes turn back into Earth, completing a cycle so a new one can begin.

Prior to the first diseases brought by contact between the Europeans and the Natives, the Wampanoag Nation numbered some 30,000 People. Think of all those homes, those families and communities, and the giving of the Earth to make those homes. To build all those homes and villages, there were great forested areas of first-growth trees. These trees were our elders, some being hundreds of years old, and measuring six or more feet in diameter. There were also vast areas of salt and fresh water swamps and marshes which provided the saplings and reeds and rushes. The Wampanoag Homeland originally included what is now southeastern Massachusetts and eastern Rhode Island, including Cape Cod and the Islands. Within that area were approximately sixty-seven villages. Those villages were supported in between by those great forested areas and vast swamps and marshes. That is what it took to build our homes and to sustain our villages.

So as you can see there was (and still is) a lot that goes into the making of a traditional Wampanoag home. Perhaps this does not sound much like “technology,” but to Native thinking, the ceremonial cannot be separated from the practical. The homes are much, much more than a list of materials or the utilization of certain techniques. It is a way of life. It is a way of life that was sustainable for over 10,000 years because it worked. It was an intentional way of life, not an accidental one, based on the natural law of our Creator.

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