Home

The home in which the family lives is made by the women and in ordinarily a circular, dome-shaped brush dwelling, with the floor at ground level. It is seven feet high at the center and approximately eight feet in diameter. To build it, long fresh poles of oak or willow are driven into the ground or placed in holes made with a digging stick. These poles, which form the framework, are arranged at one-foot intervals and are bound together at the top with yucca-leaf strands. Over them a thatching of bundles of big bluestem grass or bear grass is tied, shingle style, with yucca strings. A smoke hole opens above a central fireplace. A hide, suspended at the entrance, is fixed on a cross-beam so that it may be swung forward or backward. The doorway may face in any direction. For waterproofing, pieces of hide are thrown over the outer hatching, and in rainy weather, if a fire is not needed, even the smoke hole is covered. In warm, dry weather much of the outer roofing is stripped off. It takes approximately three days to erect a sturdy dwelling of this type. These houses are "warm and comfortable, even though there is a big snow."

The interior is lined with brush and grass beds over which robes are spread. Household equipment is utilitarian and minimal. Basketry receptacles include coiled shallow trays, large twined burden baskets for gathering wild foods, and pitch-covered woven water containers. There may be a few clay pots, unpainted and only occasionally incised. There are gourd cups and hide, gourd, and wooden dishes. Surplus food and clothing are stored in undecorated, envelope-like hide receptacles (parfleches). Ready for use are a metate and a cigar-shaped mano (as often as not of ancient Pueblo manufacture), stone and bone pounders, an awl, rawhide or horsetail hair ropes and tumplines, a fire drill, and combs made of dried and folded grass or mescal leaf.

In or around the camp are objects connected with horsemanship—saddles, bridles, bits, quirts, and saddlebags. Conspicuous, too, are weapons of war and chase—the bow and arrows, quiver, bow cover, shield, wrist guard, spear, sling, flint knives, and clubs.

Ceremonial objects—the pottery drum, a deer- or elk-hoof rattle, buckskin bags of pollen and other sacred substances, and the particular paraphernalia attached to rites of the individuals of the household—are present but are less likely to be displayed.

The dwelling may contain a musical instrument or two not necessarily connected with ritual, a one-stringed violin (probably inspired by European models), and more infrequently a flute.

(Opler 1941: 22-24)

Housebuilding.—The woman not only makes the furnishings of the home but is responsible for the construction, maintenance, and repair of the dwelling itself and for the arrangement of everything in it. She provides the grass and brush beds and replaces them when they become too old and dry. With a stiff grass broom or with a leafy branch, she sweeps out the interior if that is necessary. However, formerly "they had no permanent homes, so they didn't bother with cleaning."

The dome-shaped dwelling or wickiup, the usual home type for all the Chiricahua bands, has already been described. But a "peaked" home of brush, roughly resembling a conical Plains tepee in shape is also made. Said a Central Chiricahua informant:

Both the tepee and the oval-shaped house were used when I was a boy. The oval hut was covered with hide and was the best house. The more well-to-do had this kind. The tepee type was just made of brush. It had a place for a fire in the center. It was just thrown together.

Both types were common even before my time. For the girl's puberty rite the tepee type was used. Ten or more poles are used in the tepee. The number depends on the person who makes it. It is woman's work to do it, though sometimes the men would help a little.

A house form that departs from the more common dome-shaped variety is recorded for the Southern Chiricahua as well:

A house with sides that go up to a point has been used as far back as I can remember. When we settled down, we used the wickiup; when we were moving around great deal, we used this other kind. No certain number of poles was used for this type. The poles were never carried along. For the girl's puberty rite my people used the tepee. I can remember this was used back when I was eight or nine years old.

This alternate house type with slanting sides was a hastily constructed and very temporary dwelling among the Central and Southern Chiricahua and is hardly comparable to the permanent home of the Plains Indians. Among the Eastern Chiricahua, however, the tepee was more common and was better made, though it never became the favored form:

A few of the Eastern Chiricahua had a tepee like that of the Mescalero. Sometimes it was made with a three-pole base and sometimes with a four-pole base. The three-pole base was more common. In my day it was cloth covered, but the old people talk of them and say that, before the whites and the Spanish were here, hides were used. But most of the people of my group used the round house.

The Eastern Chiricahua didn't drag the poles of the tepee when they moved. They put them on the front of the saddle, as many as they could carry, and then went back for the rest. Usually they just discarded them though. They could always make new ones.

In addition to these regular house forms, both men and women, when they were away from home, made windbreaks by "crossing some sticks and throwing brush and leaves against them."

(Opler 1941: 385-386)

Source:

Opler, Morris E. (1941). An Apache life-way: The economic, social, and religious institutions of the Chiricahua Indians. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. [Reprinted (1962), Chicago: University of Chicago Press; (1965), New York: Cooper Square Publishers; (1965), Chicago: University of Chicago Press; & (1994), Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.]


  this page last updated: 2005 Feb 1