Tule Mat Lodges
Enjoy our continental breakfast lunch in town specially prepared game meals and good ole stories around the fire pit at night.
Tule mat lodges. Tule mats are used on the walls of traditional structures such as teepees and longhouses. How were tule mat lodges built. By 1854 there were only some 500 coeur d alene having numbered 5 000 but 80 years earlier. Tule josiah pinkham discusses the use of the tule reeds for ceremonial mats and the construction of lodges.
The women harvested the long green stems of tule from the slow current marshes along the river gathering plants of. The lodge at tule creek has all the comforts of home with tons of extras. The tule mat lodge was made using tule a type of bulrush or reed that grew in these areas. Tule mat lodges were essentially large oblong shaped tipis constructed using the same materials.
They had a wooden frame covered with mats of tule or other grass. Traditional schitsu umsh was a three pole 15 30 diameter. I try to make that connection to native architecture. If made correctly a tule mat will withstand years of use.
They are an essential part of special ceremonies such as name givings weddings funerals and medicine singings. To build the houses the men first created a wooden framework made from various types of trees such as lodgepole pine cedar or whatever else could be salvaged from the river in pre dam days. A tule mat lodge. With the devastation to the population also came loss of social and economic expertise and.
As early as the mid 1770s a series of smallpox epidemics ravaged the population of the coeur d alene. Kootenai conical style tule mat lodge. The tule mat tepee like all native american lodges used the resources at the tribes disposal and were adapted to their environments. The lodge provides directv for all guests so you will never miss the big game.
Tules bulrush scirpus acutus were a perfect material for mats and lodge covers growing up to 10 feet in length in along river beds and. Tule reeds were used in the construction of tipis and lodges because they were strong durable reeds that were readily available in the area.