Earth Lodge Villages

Earth Lodge Villages. . , The Otoe and Missouria people who lived in this area in the 1700s and 1800s built villages with small groupings of earth lodges. Like the Omahas, Poncas and Pawnees who lived in Nebraska and Kansas, and Mandans, Arikawas and Hidatsas in the Dakotas, their earth lodges were permanent structures., A framework of heavy timber posts supported the circular, dome-shaped structures, with a covering of poles, prairie grass, and sod providing strength and insulation from heat and cold. In the summer, they constructed arbors to provide shade, and scaffolds to dry meat, vegetables and firewood., Nearby were family garden plots, where women and children sowed and harvested corn, beans, watermelon, tobacco and pumpkins., For brief trips in the spring and summer, and during buffalo hunts, they traveled with their "mobile homes" made of poles and animal skins, known as tipis., [Inset photo caption reads] Earth lodges such as the replica lodge constructed here would have been home to 20 to 25 people, plus a few prized ponies., Left, Pe'Dagahi and his wife at Omaha Earth Lodge Home, 1869. , Photo by William Henry Jackson, Nebraska State Historical Society, RG1289-20-01., [Background] Illustration by Linda S. Meigs, 2013.