The Sunday Oregonian., July 13, 1913, SECTION SIX, Page 8, Image 72

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Development of House-Building on Continent Will
Be Shown in Unique Exhibit at Panama Fair .
o
. XE OF the most Interesting fea
tures of the coming- Panama Fair
Is to be an exhibit Illustrating the.
evolution of house building: In America.
Aboriginal architecture in particular
will furnish the theme. For one should
realize that house building; as an art
had attained a high development in the
New World many centurleB before the
landing of Columbus. Indeed, thou
sands of years before Columbus was
born the Idea of the apartment-house
had found in America a concrete ex
pression far beyond anything known
in the Old World; and, within the geo
graphical limits of what is now the
United States there . were types of
dwellings not surpassed In size" or
architectural workmanship by anything
in Europe.
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Even at the present time we find In
this country certain types of houses,
very ancient by origin, which are not
known anywhere else - in the world.
There are, for example, the curious
basket dwellings of the Wichita In
dians; the huge beehive structures
erected for domiciliary purposes by the
Mokl and Zuni of the Southwest; and,
by no means least remarkable, the
houses of the Alaskan Eskimo, which
are an adaptation of the idea of the
fireless . cooker, ". for keeping .people
warm in the ,Winter time.
' Miniature models of the various kinds
of houses to be shown at the Panama
Exposition are being prepared under
the direction of expert ethnologists.
From these reproductions will be made
in full size, and, if the thing can be
managed, people representing the tribes
accustomed to inhabit the dwellings
will be engaged to occupy them. Thus
the visitor at the fair will be enabled
to see, almost at a glance, the manner
of living adopted by primitive folks all
the way from the Arctic Circle to Pata
gonia. Even the lake dwellers of Ven
ezuela will be on view .
It is a fact rather odd, by the way,
that the last-named people, ' as. found
today in that part of America, exactly
reproduce the mode of existence 'pur
sued by the prehistoric lake dwellers
of Switzerland, who flourished perhaps
100,000 years ago. Their houses (of
poles tied togerther and thatched with
grass) are erected on platforms sup
ported' on piles far out in the shallow
water of lagoons. Leading an amphib
ious life, they spend a large part of
their time in dug-out canoes, deriving
a subsistence from fishing chiefly.
The most remarkable development of
this aquatic civilization Is found in the
vast lakelike lagoon of Maracaibo. and
It was the curious water towns there
discovered which caused the early Span
ish explorers to call the country "Vene
zuela, or Little Venice.
Domestic architecture is necessarily
Influenced mainly by environment; that
is to say, by climate and particularly
by the character of obtainable building
materials. Our modern cities are built
of such materials, in the way of stone
or what not, as are most readily at
hand. The Indians of the Northwest
Coast, dwelling in a region of immense
forests of yellow cedar, occupy wooden
dwellings, huge in size and of massive
construction, which mark the highest
aboriginal American achievement . in
house building. These are. In fact
apartment houses, a single building,
sometimes affording accommodations
for as many as 250 persons.
Such a house may be the home of an
entire clan. Through the middle of it
runs a hallway 200 feet or more In
length, off which rooms open as upon
a hotel corridor. Over the whole is
an attic, and holes In the roof. provtCa
means for the escape of smoke. Kach
room is the living- quarters of a family,
and has its own fireplace. The front
of the structure is adorned by an
enormous pole, called a "totem pole,"
which Is the trunk of a mighty cedar,
carved with representations of various
mythologic animals. This pole is an
heraldic column, reciting the history
and traditions .of the clan. Through
the lower part of it opens the front
door of the house.
Now, it is easy to believe that these
people, if they had lived in a stone en
vironment, would have rivaled the an
cient Mexicans and Peruvians in their
architecture. How tremendous must
have been the labor, with primitive
tools of getting the huge tree-trunks
out of the forest, hewing the planks,
posts and beams, carving the great
totem poles, and erecting the massive
buildings! Usually tBe front of the
house is covered with mythologic paint.
lngs; for these aborigines are exceed
Jngly clever artists. In early days
they built fortified towns of wood, but
these have passed away.
The character of building materials
necessarily has an important bearing
upon the permanance of architecture.
Wood decays, and the structures erect
ed by the clever and industrious In
dians of the Northwest Coast, massive
as they are, do not endure for any
great leng'th of time. On the other
hand, the ancestors of the Zunl and
Mokl, In the Southwest, with no wood
for building purposes, but unlimited
quantities of stone ready at hand, put
up apartment houses of quite a differ
ent type, which were able to with
stand the wear and tear of centuries.
inese Duuamgs or news stone were
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fortress-like, and attained great size,
the results of the skill and effort of
one generation being- supplanted by
those of the next. Thus, In the course
of time, the communal dwelling, oc
cupied by an entire community (a
town under one roof) developed Into a
formidable stronghold. Of such a char-'
acter were many of the "cliff dwell
ings" of New Mexico and Arizona, the
remains of some of which today bear
a striking resemblance to ruined cas
tles of the Old World.
This mode of living in fortified houses
of stone, built on shelves of cliffs in
accessible to an enemy, was abandoned
when the tribes which occupied them
found themselves no longer threatened
by marauding foes. Thus it is that
their descendants : today use mud
(otherwise known as "adobe") for
building purposes instead of stone. But
through habit acquired in ancient times
they still follow substantially the same
method of construction, suggestive of
the beehive, rooms being added to the
vast tribal apartment-house as the nu
merical increase of the population de
mands them.
The dwelling of the-Alaskan Eskimo
looks like a mere elongated mound of
earth. It is, as a matter of fact, cov
ered with earth to keep out the cold
In Winter, but it Is far from being a
rude construction. Its framework Is
carefully put together with well-out
timbers, though in some Instances
whale ribs, which serve excellently for
the purpose, are used. The living-room
occupies the upper part of one end of
the structure, which Is somewhat ele
vated. To it leads a long entrance
passage, . which serves Incidentally as
quarters for the Indispensable dogs.
In the Summer time the Inmates elm.
ply walk into the entrance from above
ground, making their war directlj
through. But in Winter they pass in
by way of an underground hole at one
side, the Bummer aaor fcaisjc
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THE SUNDAY OREGONIAJf, fORTI,A?nD, JULY 13, 1913.
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From the underground passage thev
climb up into the living-room, which,
being at the top of the house, la the
warmest place. The whole arrange
ment is for conservation of heat an
adaptation of the Idea of the fireless
cooker. A whaleoll lamp of primitive
pattern serves In lieu of a stove, but
a considerable contribution to the tem
perature is furnished by the occupants
themselves, Including the dogs.
This, it will be noticed, is very dif
ferent from the domestic architecture
of the Greenland Eskimo, who build
their Winter houses of snow. When
cold weather arrives they look for a
snowbank that Is of the requisite hard,
ness and consistency, and there they
establish a temporary village. Nor Is
the material to be by any means de
spised. It is quite as serviceable for
the purpose as stone and has the ad
vantage of being easily quarried. In
eftect It Is a kind of -stone. Properly
considered. It is as much a kind of
rock as granite and would last indefi
nitely but for Its low melting point.
Out of this hard snow the Eskimo
builder cuts a series of blocks, which
he lays in such a way that, as the
house rises, they form a continuous
spiral. Tho whole structure Is like
that of a snail shell and, when finished
at the top with a "key block," forms a
beautiful dome.'. It is a special and
peculiar method of making an arch;
and so strong Is the dpme that the
key block may safely be omitted for
the passage of smoke. Sometimes a
window of - clear ice is put Into the
side. A long passage of similar con
struction (to keep the cold out) leads
to the main apartment beneath the
dome. Supplementary rooms, for stor.
age or other purposes, may be added.
When Summer comes the house melts
.way and the Inmates content them
selves during the warm season with a
rude shelter of driftwood or whale ribs
covered with skins. -
- It seems very odd to find the Pawnee
Indians of Oklahoma living today In
tilntmar similar to those used
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by the Alaskan Eskimo that Is to say,
finely timbered structures covered with
earth and overgrown . with grass. The
probable explanation is that the Faw-
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nees came anciently from Alaska; their
traditions point to origin in the Far
North. Although of primitive appear
ance, as) viewed, bflt th casual eye.
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their dwellings are beautifully con
structed. Every timber of the fram
ing is named the chief ones after cer
tain gods. It costs as much ta build one
of theue Pawnee houses as it does to
put up a fairly expensive modern city
residence. . To reproduce one of them
fo the Panama Exposition will involve
an expenditure of $7500.
The Pawnees are typical Indians of
the plains. Like the Sioux, they are
horse Indians, and in former days they
got a living chiefly by the chase of the
buffalo. The Navajos, who likewise
are from the Far North by origin, build
the same kind of a house, which for an
unknown number of centuries has been
characteristic of the prairies and plains.
It is tne only, kind of dwelling ever
erected that is tornado-proof. One might
say that It is its own cyclone cellar.
Not a few of the ancient Indian mounds
of that region, by the way, though
long attributed to a vanished and mys
terious race of "mound builders," have
been found by digging into them, to
be nothing In the world but houses.
The Papago Indians, of Sonora, In
Western Mexico, inhabit a region where
there is no wood worth mentioning, and
so are obliged, for building purposes, to
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grass houses are entirely satisfactory
being sufficiently substantial, cool anJ
cheap. For protection against seml-oc
casloiial wet. the roof of the dwelling
Is spread with mud.
In the Bay of California, which sep
arates the mainland of Sonora from)
Lower California, there is a tribe of
savages known as the beri occasional
cannibals, and supposed to be the most
primitive people on this continent"
who occupy the large Island of Tlburon
Their houses are of stones rudely piled
one on top of another after the ancient
Cyclopean method, with the back shell
of a huge turtle for a roof.
There are in California a number of
tribes of aborigines, the most civilized
of whom (speaking In terms merely
relative) build houses of planks which
they get out by splitting tree trunks
with wedges. -With such planks they
construct dwellings of" circular shape,
well roofed, which they use for sleep
ing purposes. But their sitting-rooms ,
(so to call them) are rudest imag
inable structures of a few poles with
leafy boughs of trees on top to keep
off the sun. Near by the house there
is always an arrangement of long, thin
poles set up in such a way as to form
a huge basket, for the reception of
the family store of acorns this being
the household granary.
But it Is the V.'ichlta Indians, of
Kansas and Oklahoma, who .have found
the queerest use for baskets. They live
in them.. The houses of these people
are nothing in the world but huge bas
kets turned upside down, the frame,
made In coiled fashion, like a snail
shell being covered with straw tied on
in bunches. Close at hand there Is al
ways a platform erected on poles (for
safety from dogs), which Is used for
the drying and curing of meat or other
provender.
It is proposed at the Panama Expo
sition to represent the evolution of
architecture on the American conti
nent, not through the medium of arch
aeology, hut by offering to view tho
various types of primitive dwellings
as they exist today these, as will be
understood, being survivals from ear
lier epochs, and affording a pictur
esque as well as instructive idea of the
modes of living adopted by remote iw
cestora oX the peoples concerned.
RENE BACHTTte.