A tipi or tepee ( "") is a conical lodge tent that is distinguished from other conical tents by the smoke flaps at the top of the structure, and historically made of animal hides or pelts or, in more recent generations, of canvas stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The loanword came into English usage from the Dakota language and Lakota language.
Historically, the tipi has been used by certain Indigenous peoples of the Plains in the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies of North America, notably the seven tribes of the Sioux, as well as among the Iowa people, the Otoe and Pawnee, and among the Blackfeet, Crow, Assiniboines, Arapaho, and Plains Cree. They are also used west of the Rocky Mountains by Indigenous peoples of the Plateau such as the Yakama and the Cayuse. They are still in use in many of these communities, though now primarily for ceremonial purposes rather than daily living. Modern tipis usually have a canvas covering.
Non-Native people have often stereotypically and incorrectly assumed that all Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada live in tipis, which is incorrect, as many Native American cultures and civilizations and First Nations from other regions have used other types of dwellings (pueblos, wigwams, hogans, chickees, and longhouses).
Terminology and etymology
The spelling tipi is the one most common in Canadian English whereas the spelling tepee is the most common one according to American English dictionaries and the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.
The word tipi came into English from the Lakota language.
The wigwam or "wickiup", a dome-shaped shelter typically made of bark layered on a pole structure, was also used by various tribes, especially for hunting camps. The term wigwam has often been incorrectly used to refer to a conical skin tipi.
The conventional translation in French and English for all Indigenous dwellings at one time was "lodge," resulting in many compounds and place names such as sweatlodge, lodgepole pine, Red Lodge, and so on.
Types and utility
Structure
A tipi is distinguished from other conical tents by the smoke flaps at the top of the structure. The tipi is durable, provides warmth and comfort in winter, is cool in the heat of summer, and is dry during heavy rains. Tipis can be disassembled and packed away quickly when people need to relocate and can be reconstructed quickly upon settling in a new area. Historically, this portability was important to Plains Indians with their at-times nomadic lifestyle. Tribes would have well-organized camp circles of family units living in multiple tipis arranged in order depending on rank or roles in the family unit, community, or ceremony. Generally, the door and camp openings face east in the direction of the sunrise.
A typical family tipi is a conical, portable structure with two adjustable smoke flaps, multiple poles (historically from long) called lodge poles.
Lewis H. Morgan noted that tipi frames were 13 to 15 poles that were tall. These poles, "after being tied together at the small ends, are raised upright with a twist so as to cross the poles above the fastening." The builders pull the lower ends out to form a circle about in diameter on the ground. They stretch a covering of tanned and untanned buffalo hides, sewn together, over the frame, which they then secure with stakes at the base. "At the top there is an extra skin adjusted as a collar, so as to be open on the windward side to facilitate the exit of the smoke. A low opening is left for a doorway, which is covered with an extra skin used as a drop. The fire-pit and arrangements for beds are the same as in the Ojibwa lodge, grass being used in the place of spruce or hemlock twigs."
Lodgepole pine is the preferred wood in the Northern and Central Plains and red cedar in the Southern Plains. Tipis have a detachable cover over the structure. The cover has historically been made of buffalo hide, an optional skin or cloth lining, and a canvas or bison calf skin door. Modern lodges are more often made of canvas.