Wigwams were made from woven birch bark.
While studying other cultures, learning about the shelter the people of the culture chose to live in can tell a story of their daily life. The climate and lifestyle of the Eastern Woodland Indians led them to live in wigwams, a small one-room hut made of wooden frames with woven mats or sheets of birchbark. Here's how the NativeTech At Our Homestead page describes a typical home scene: "At our homestead you will see a bark covered dwelling with a field of maize, beans and squash in the background, and a hearth with ceramic and birchbark cooking vessels."
Instructions
1. A plastic margarine or whipped topping bowl is easy to turn into a wigwam.
Remove any paper or plastic labels on the plastic container. Cut a 2 by 1-inch opening on one side of the container to represent the doorway to the wigwam. With adult supervision, cut a central hole in the bottom of the plastic container. This hole should be about one inch in diameter to represent the smoke hole on the wigwam.
2. Prepare the base by covering the cardboard with green paper.
Cover the cardboard with green paper. The edges of the paper should overlap enough so that they can be folded under the edges. Tape the paper down flat with the masking tape. The green paper represents the grass and makes the base for your wigwam.
3. Tear 1/2-inch strips of masking tape. Cover the outside of the plastic bowl with the masking tape strips. This technique will resemble the layered woven birchbark mats the Eastern Woodlands used over their wooden frames. Continue covering and layering the tape on the bowl until the surface is sufficiently covered and the original bowl is not visible.
4. Painting the wigwam makes it look realistic.
Turn the bowl upside down with the smoke hole on the top. Paint the taped outside surface of the bowl with brown paint. Set aside the wigwam to dry.
5. Place the wigwam on the green base. Add shrubs by crumpling up small pieces of green paper and glueing them around the house. A Native American figure can be added, but just remember to try to match the scale of the wigwam. Every inch represents about two feet. A three-inch man represents a six-foot tall man.
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