The Huron Longhouse

The Huron Longhouse. . , When Huron refugees settled on this site in 1671 they established a village similar to the ones they had built for centuries in lower Ontario, their homeland. , , The most striking feature in a Huron village is the very tall and very long bark house. Unlike the seasonally migratory Ojibwa people who built smaller, more portable houses, the Huron, who were a settled agricultural people, built these huge permanent structures. There were as many as ten longhouses in this village. , , Each longhouse stood about 20 feet high and 20 feet wide, and extended anywhere from 40 to 120 feet long. Saplings were placed into the ground at opposite sides of the house and arched and lashed at the top to form the rounded roof. Cross beams were tied at regular intervals to brace the structure, and strips of bark acted as siding. Woven mats or skins served as doors. Each house was inhabited by a grandmother, her husband, her daughters, their husbands, and their children. A son lived in the house of his wife's mother. , , This longhouse sits on what is believed to be the location of these structures. Unlike the smaller Ojibwa wigwams, which were always built facing the East, these huge houses were positioned north/south, probably to avoid the stiff East wind which frequently blows off the bay.