With the cold snap i started thinking about wind blasting through a house on a mound by the river, and what a couple inches of snow would do to your day.
Snow is a great insulator, and there used to be a lot more of it. Packing it against the sides of the house both insulates and keeps the wind out of any cracks.
Cahokia is the site of a Native American city that existed between 1050 and 1350 CE in Illinois, right across from modern-day St. Louis.
They dug their houses into the ground, which helped with insulation! So they had a house in a mound by the river.
There is a small blurb about it on Cahokia’s wikipedia article:
Cahokian domestic structures were generally of pole-and-thatch construction and followed rectangular footprints. Wall trenches were often used instead of posts for building construction.
I also have a book about Cahokia that describes it:
In these Indian houses, wall posts are set vertically into the earth. Floors are dug below the ground surface to keep out the summer heat and the winter cold, so people have to step down to enter through the small doorways. Earth is heaped up against these semisubterranean houses’ exterior walls, and the gabled roofs, covered with thick golden thatch, are brought close to the ground.
From Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi by Timothy R. Pauketat. Publisher link
- People were migratory and relocated to areas that were known to be not as harsh
- Their shelters were designed in ways to keep out the cold and keep in the warmth created by fires
- Animal furs
4. Whiskey- Sharing a bed with a partner ;)
Definitely no whiskey in North America pre European contact, not sure about other fermented beverages in the cold regions. I know central america has a long history of drinking alcohol
Ah I somehow missed the pre European contact part. Was thinking of 1800s Americans guzzling pints of alcohol each day.
Yes I feel like movies representing those eras really need to dial up the fact that people were wasted drunk
Just speculation, but snow also being a good insulator, I’d imagine natives would try to use it strategically to fill in gaps around their homes, and such. Simply building a solid wall of snow opposite an entryway probably helped a lot with wind issues.
Also, in preparation for snowy, cold months, it was important to pre-prepare pemmican and similar foods, as well as smoke and dry fish, etc. I understand that fruits & veggies were also dried and roasted, and commonly stored underground.
Not native, just first to migrate.
Why do you feel like that would be a useful distinction?
I don’t know but I mean many tribes were nomadic so that could be one thing.
