Iroquois longhouse
Figure 1a
The Iroquois call themselves the Haudenosaunee, which means “people of the longhouse.” (They are also called the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.) They live in northern New York State and in southern Ontario and Quebec, but often go to work in other areas. For the past 60 years Iroquois men have climbed far above the ground to construct the tall buildings of New York City. One of the Nations, the Mohawk, is especially noted for its contribution. For example, they were involved in the building of the two 110-story towers of the World Trade Center. When the towers fell on September 11, 2001, about a hundred Mohawk iron workers labored for months at the difficult task of cleaning up after the disaster.
Until about the year 1800, the Haudenosaunee lived in longhouses. The building, made of saplings and tree bark, was from 110 to 240 feet long and 20 feet high, and housed several related families. Today the longhouse is used mainly for ceremonies.
The construction of a longhouse had to be planned carefully. It had a central hallway running the length of the house. A room for each family led off the hallway. Figure la (See page 47 for The Calendar of the Iroquois of North America activity.)
You have been assigned the task of designing a longhouse for the village. You want to draw several different floor plans. Decide how many rooms you will need. The table below gives some suggestions about the dimensions (length and width) of the longhouse.
• Sheet of lined paper
• Several sheets of ½-inch or centimeter graph paper
• Pencil
• Pen
• Ruler
1. Copy the table on lined paper. Complete the table. Find the total area and perimeter of each model. The perimeter is the distance around the longhouse expressed in meters. The total area is the number of square meters enclosed by the perimeter. See the “Log Cabin” Activity on page 82.
2. Decide on the scale for drawing the models. Use the same scale for both models. The scale is the number of meters represented by one unit on the graph paper. For example, 1 cm = 3 m.
3. Draw each floor plan on a separate sheet of graph paper. Show the sub-divisions into rooms. Write the scale. Label all the dimensions on your floor plan, including the size of each room.
1. What factors did the Haudenosaunee have to take into account when they built their longhouses?
2. Research the history of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Where does each nation live today? Where is the main longhouse, the building used for ceremonies?
3. Years ago, the storyteller might call the children around him as night fell. Then he would tell tales of talking animals or giants. Look up some of the stories of the Iroquois.
4. Design and construct an Iroquois longhouse. Yasmin, a seventh-grade student in New York City, constructed a longhouse using popsicle sticks. Figure lb
Yesmin’s longhouse
Figure 1b
