American Indian Cultural Regions – Object #4 – Arkansas Primary Source Sets

Birch-bark Indian Wigwams

<p>A woman and child are on the left, next to a wigwam. 5 men are seated to the right of a canoe. Two have pipes. A group of four are standing in the background near two wigwams. A river is near the horizon.</p>

Wood engraving of American Indians near Lake Superior in camp with birch bark wigwams and a canoe

Transcript

“The country about Oklanah is sometimes called the Garden of Lake Superior, an account of its great fertility…[the] illustration shows the wigwams, some flat-roofed and others rounded, the latter being chiefly used in winter time. Like the canoes,they are generally constructed of birch-bark.”

Questions:

What types of physical geography and natural resources do you see in this photograph?

How did the Indians at Oklanah, near Lake Superior, adapt to their physical environment?

What questions do you have about this engraving?

Citations

“Birch-bark Indian Wigwams.” Illustration in Harper’s Weekly, August 5, 1871. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.