A tipi (also teepee, tepee) is a conical tent originally made of animal skins or birch bark and popularized by the Native Americans of the Great Plains.
The tipi was durable, provided warmth and comfort in winter, was dry during heavy rains, and was cool in the heat of summer. Tipis could be disassembled and packed away quickly when a tribe decided to move, and could be reconstructed quickly when the tribe settled in a new area. This portability was important to Plains Indians who had a nomadic lifestyle.

TIPI CONSTRUCTION

Tipis consist of four elements: a set of ten to twenty sapling poles (depending on the size of the tipi), a canvas or hide cover (the outer shape familiar from photographs), an optional inner canvas or skin lining, and a canvas or skin door. There may also be an optional partial ceiling called an ozan. Ropes and pegs are required to bind the poles, close the cover, attach the lining and door, and anchor the resulting structure to the ground. Tipis are distinguished from other tents by two crucial innovations: the opening at the top and the smoke flaps, which allow dwellers to cook and heat themselves with an open fire, and the lining, which insulates while providing a source of fresh air to fire and dwellers.

Tipi covers are made by sewing together strips of canvas or hide and cutting out a semicircular shape from the resulting surface. Trimming this shape yields a door and the smoke flaps that allow control of the chimney effect to expel smoke from cooking fires. Old style traditional linings were made of hides, blankets and retangular pieces of cloth hanging about four to five feet above the ground and tied to the poles. Modern linings are the most difficult element to measure, since they consist of trapezoid-shaped strips of canvas assembled to form the shape of a truncated cone. The poles, made of peeled, polished and dried tapering saplings, are cut to measure six feet longer than the radius of the cover.

SETTING UP A TIPI

Tipis painted by George Catlin, who visited a number of tribes in the 1830's and recorded Native American daily life
The first step in setting up a tipi is to lash together three of the poles at the skin's radius from their bases. One end of this lashing rope is left dangling from the tie-point, long enough to reach to the base of the poles. These tripod poles are stood upright, with their unfastened ends spaced apart on the ground to form a triangle, each pole's base the skin's radius from its neighbors. A dozen more long poles are laid onto the three primary poles. Their upper ends rest on the lashing of the first three, and the lower ends are evenly spaced to form a circle on the ground which includes the original three poles. The lashing rope is then walked around the whole structure three times and pulled tight. This ties the placed poles to the tripod at the crown of the tipi. The canvas skin is tied to another pole, lifted up and rested against top of the tied poles. Then the skin is pulled around the pole framework. The overlap seam is closed with wooden lacing pins which are thin sticks about 10 inches long with one or both ends tapered. Sometimes a door is attached to one of the bottom lacing pins.

The base of the skin is pegged to the ground. Traditionally, pegs were placed in slits at the bottom of the cover. As canvas or cloth came into use, smooth pebbles were pushed into the cloth and a cord tied between the bulge of cloth and a wooden peg in the ground. A gap can be allowed at ground level for airflow in warm seasons and the base can be completely closed in cooler weather. The bases of the non-tripod poles can be moved in or out to tighten the tension of the skin.

INSIDE THE TIPI

Inside the tipi, a cord is wrapped from pole to pole above head height. An inner lining can be suspended from this cord and pushed back on the ground near the inside base of the poles. An interior awning helps prevent rain drops hitting bedding, and can be suspended at the top of the lining. Bedding and personal items are pushed against the liner to keep it in place. The inner lining acts as a heat insulator, draft and pest deterent.

A small fire can be set in the center of the floor of the tipi for heat and cooking. The smoke exits the top of the tipi which is facilitated by two adjustable smoke flaps set at right angles to the wind to prevent a downdraft. A draft rising between the cover and the lining adds to the chimney effect and helps carry the smoke up and out. In cold weather grass can be stuffed between the cover and the lining to prevent drafts. Air for combustion can be ducted to the fire through a buried pipe when the tipi is closed tightly during cold weather.

WEATHER ADJUSTMENTS

In hot weather the lining may be removed, and the cover rolled up a few feet on one or two sides allowing any small breeze to create ventilation.

During times of heavy rains, a hide or fabric ceiling called an ozan can protect against dripping precipitation and reduce drafts as well. The ozan, when used, typically only covers the back half of the tipi and is slanted slightly upwards to the front, draining water to the rear and allowing smoke from the fire to vent out of the top of the tipi. Small sticks between the lining rope and the poles can create a gap for rainwater running down the poles to reach the ground without being caught by, and dripping off of, the lining rope. Contemporary tipi-dwellers may tie a bucket beneath the crown, or install rubber barriers on the poles and a canvas rain-catcher which drains from the crown to the outside, to collect rain dripping off the crown of the poles. A fabric or hide rain cap can be placed over the top of the tipi if the poles are not too long.

The end of the rope used to lash the poles together is secured to pegs driven into the floor of the tipi. Called the "hurricane rope", it anchors the structure and prevents it from toppling in high winds.

Tipi Campgrounds and Retreats

Tipi Manufacturers

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