Longhouses of The Indigenous Peoples of North America - Northwest Coast Longhouses

Northwest Coast Longhouses

These longhouses are built with logs or split-log frame and covered with split log planks, and sometimes an additional bark cover. Cedar is the preferred resource. The length of these longhouses is usually 60–100 ft (18–30 m). The wealthy built extraordinarily large longhouses. The Suquamish Old Man House at what became the Port Madison Indian Reservation was 500×40–60 ft (150×12–18 m), c. 1850.

Usually there is one doorway that faces the shore. Each longhouse contains a number of booths along both sides of the central hallway, separated by wooden containers (akin to modern drawers). Each booth also has its own individual fire. Usually an extended family occupied one longhouse, and cooperated in obtaining food, building canoes, and other daily tasks. The roof is a slanted shed roof and pitched to various degrees depending upon the rainfall. The gambrel roof was unique to Puget Sound Coast Salish. The front is often very elaborately decorated with an integrated mural of numerous drawings of faces and heraldic crest icons of raven, bear, whale, etc. A totem pole is often accompanied with a longhouse, though the style varies greatly, and sometimes is even used as part of the entrance way.

Tribes or ethnic groups along the North American Pacific coast with some sort of longhouse building traditions are among others Haida, Tsimshian, Tlingit, Makah, Clatsop, Coast Salish and [[Multnomah tribe.