How do you make a plain Indian teepee for kids?

Answer 1

Tipis are a very simple form of tent, so making a small version for children isn't too difficult - and it has very good historic precedent, since the girl children of Plains tribes were taught to make small versions of tipis to show how the covers were sewn together and how the poles were erected and spaced.

Finding the materials is the first task - natives used young, straight pine trees and stripped the bark from them but modern hardware stores should have thick dowels - or use any straight sticks that are long and strong enough. Depending on the size of the tipi you will need about six or eight of these and they should be very over-long so that they project from the top of the cover. Real tipis had many more poles; a tripod of 3 or 4 poles were tied together near the top and erected, with the other poles simply laid against this support and held in place by the cover.

The cover should be made as a half-circle using canvas or some other material - paint any designs on the cover while it is laid out flat on the ground. "Smoke flaps" are extra pieces added along the upper front edge but these can be omitted.

The front seam of a real tipi is held together with short wooden skewers, leaving the lower portion open for the doorway, which was often covered by a blanket or an oval-shaped piece of hide.

The diagram at the link below may be helpful: