Tipi or not to Tipi?

[tenngun]

It's a matter of names and what means what. The conical lodge is old, maybe older then the first people to come to America. Conical bark lodges from the Great Lakes and north woods, or caribo hide conical lodges of subarctic Indians and simular shapes among the siberians or Lapps are those tipis?
The Spanish record conical lodges in early 16th century. When dose a conical lodge become a tipi?
So yes l &c saw conical lodges, if we discribe a tipi with round door, smoke flaps with long ears, liners ect as a "classic tipi' they seem to evolved after the rendezvous period. Tipis made by some of the best companies RK,Panther primitives tentsmuths ect turn out What Seems To Be late plains or early reservation period. Almost are Sioux, Chyanne lodges. Crow, Blackfoot, Arapaho four pole base lodges are harder to find at all. Shashone, Nez pierce, Bannock may not have adopted tipis till 1840s Plains Apache,Kiowa, and Kiowa Apache may not have adopted them before the 1850s and we're still using wickyups well into the 1870s fin photos in thier camps.
A rose by any other name.

 

[tenngun]

Tipi does mean house, and tipi or words close to it were the names for homes where ever souan speakers were found. Mandan earth houses or minominee quonsent like long houses and today's frame houses on the Lakota reservation are tipis without being tipis.

 

[Doc Arroyo]

I have never owned a tipi, but have helped set them up and stayed in one. Nice rig, hard to haul, hard to set up. Not my style.

Owned a small wall tent. Too many sticks, hard to set up, had issues in the wind.

Currently I own a pyramid tent that is typically set up with one interior pole. 4 stakes, pole, tie in floor, add 6 to 8 more stakes...done.

The only candidate for replacing the pyramid is a wedge tent with doors at both ends. For historic presentations we add 2 more uprights and another ridge pole, and clamshell it open. Really makes a great "stage" and is great in warm weather. Here is a picture of our camp set for a great day of interpretation...

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