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The answer to all questions of this type is: they used whatever was available in their immediate locality. The eastern woodlands area was densely forested and a very wide range of timbers were available, with large amounts of new-growth saplings that could be bent and tied to make the framework.

Straight, strong posts were first set into the ground in rows (both as a frame for the external walls and for internal partitions), running the full length of the structure. Among the Mohawks, a longhouse could be anything from 30 feet to 400 feet long, depending on the size of the clan or extended family it was intended for. They were always about 20 feet high and 20 feet wide, no matter what the length was going to be.

Horizontal poles were lashed to the uprights, then more poles were curved and tied to form the support for the curved roof. More horizontal poles strengthened these rafters before large sheets of bark were used to cover the entire building.

The Iroquois tribes used elm bark sheets as the covering, but the tribes further south and south-west generally had access to birch.

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12y ago

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