Chahta Ichukka Chashpo / The Early Choctaw Home

Chahta Ichukka Chashpo, also, The Early Choctaw Home. . , Early Choctaw families built summer and winter homes using the abundant materials around them. At the time of the American Revolution, Choctaw summer homes were constructed from a pole framework, sometimes with only one solid wall. Their thatched roofs were made from palmetto, cypress bark, or grass, skillfully attached to wooden rafters and cross pieces to create either a flat or peaked shape. Some of these buildings were designed to maximize airflow, providing comfort in the hot and humid summer weather of Mississippi, but also to make a shelter from the rain. The solid walls of winter homes were constructed by setting a series of posts into a trench in the ground. A latticework of cane was woven around the posts and plastered with an adobe-like material. The thatched roofs on these dwellings were made with smoke holes in them to allow the smoke made by heating fires to escape. Beds made of cane and covered in softly tanned animal hides lined the interior of the walls. The single door was only about three to four feet high and faced the east towards the sunrise. The doorway could be sealed at night and a fire lit inside the hearth to make the home very warm. Except for the tasks of cutting and setting the poles, Choctaw women did most of the work in house-construction and were considered to be the homeowners.