# The Pima Indians/Technology/Artifacts/Architecture

The Food Supply - Domestication of Animals - Agriculture - Trade - Artifacts Wood · Stone · Fiber and Leather · Pottery · Basketry · Textiles · Architecture · Clothing
TECHNOLOGY
Artifacts
ARCHITECTURE
In their natural state the Pimas built dwellings of four different types besides a storehouse. First in importance is the round, flat-roofed ki, which resembles an overturned wash basin in shape. Notwithstanding the fact that some have declared that the Piman ki suggests the pueblo style of architecture and should therefore be admitted as evidence of relationship between the Hohokam and Pimas, the author must confess that he has been unable to detect the remotest resemblance to the pueblo type. On the contrary, analogies may be found with the dwellings of tribes much farther distant from Pimería. The ki is built by the men, who gather in parties of ten or fifteen for the purpose—a custom which affords another instance of a different division of labor from that in vogue among the Pueblos, as with them the house building is the work of women. Though the Pimas have had an example of pueblo structure at their very doors ever since they have inhabited the Gila valley, in the noble Casa Grande, the walls of which yet rise 30 feet above the plain, and have seen the adobe buildings of the Spaniards and Mexicans for three hundred and fifty years, nevertheless they have continued to construct houses of the simplest type that are but little better than temporary shelters. The first Piman adobe house was built by the head chief, Antonio Azul, twenty-two years ago, and since that time the people have made very commendable progress. Some villages—such, for example, as Blackwater—now contain few dwellings that are not of adobe. However, there are others, such as Skâ’kâĭk, that retain the old-time ki. As an inducement toward progress, the Indian Department or its authorized agent has stipulated that a man must cut off his long hair and build an adobe house before he may receive a wagon from the Government. The ​old custom of destroying the buildings at the death of their owners has practically disappeared, but its retarding influence upon architectural development continued throughout the aboriginal period.
Usually but one family occupies a single dwelling, though sometimes two and even three related families live together. If there are two, their sleeping mats are placed on each side of the entrance, so that in sleeping the heads may be toward the east, the door being on that side in order that the inmates may rise early to greet the Day god as he appears over the distant summits of the Sierra Tortilla. A more practical motive for placing the doors on the east side is to avoid the southwest winds which blow in the afternoon during nearly the entire year and which are especially strong during the month of March. The wind usually begins to blow at about 10 in the morning and increases to a velocity of 10 miles an hour by mid-afternoon, Fig. 76. Diagram of house. Scale: 1 inch = 10 feet. after which it decreases until midnight.
Types
The general plan of the house is shown in the accompanying diagram, (fig. 76). The central supporting framework is usually entirely of cottonwood, though other timber is sometimes used. The lighter framework shown in plate XXXV, a, is of willow, on which is laid the arrowwood, cattail reeds, wheat straw, cornstalks, or similar material that supports the outer layer of earth.
​Lieutenant Emory estimated the size of the ki at from 25 to 50 feet in diameter, which is much too high. From 10 to 25 feet would have been much nearer the true diameter. The average dimensions are as follows:
The absence of a smoke hole is noteworthy, as it is almost universally present in primitive dwellings. Its absence can not be explained by the fact that the mildness of the climate permits the Pimas to spend most of their time in the open air and build their fires outside, because in winter fires are maintained within to such an extent that the roofs become loaded with masses of soot. It would seem probable that the roofs were not provided with openings in order that the houses might be as little open to the attack of the Apaches as possible were it not for the fact that the Cocopas and others living southwest of the Pimas build huts similarly devoid of smoke vents, which suggests that the Pimas have come from that quarter where the torrid heat renders indoor fires unnecessary at any season. The doorways were low and narrow for the same reason (60 by 90 cm. in size). They were closed by pieces of old blankets (pl. XXXV, b), by slats woven together with rawhide, or by loose sticks of wood (pl. XXXV, e, f).
In each village a low rectangular council house afforded a meeting place for the men and at times the women also of the community. Rev. C.H. Cook informs the writer that he has addressed an audience of as many as 80 persons in one of these houses, all bending low to avoid the smoke. The last council house was destroyed at Pé-eptcĭlt in January, 1902.
Another form of dwelling place was the woman's menstrual lodge, which was a mere shelter of branches to afford protection from the sun.
The fourth type of dwelling is the arbor, or, as some of the early writers termed it, 'the bower.' It is a cottonwood framework supported by crotched posts, roofed with arrowwood and earth, affording a shade from the sun, from which protection is desirable during ​the greater part of the year. The roof furnishes a convenient place for drying squashes, melons, fruit, and, in the old days, cotton, where the dogs and poultry can not disturb them. Under its shade the olla of drinking water is set in a crotched post or is suspended from above by a maguey fiber net. Here two parallel ropes may be hung and a cloth folded back and forth upon itself across them, thus forming an impromptu hammock in which to swing the baby. Here the metate and mortar are usually seen, and here the women sit and weave baskets or perform such other labor as may be done at home. It is the living room throughout the day the year around, and now that the fear of Apaches has gone it is becoming the sleeping place as well. From a hygienic point of view it is a great pity that the Pimas are learning to build adobes, for the tendency is for them to live indoors and to abandon the healthful arbors, every inch of whose floors is purified by a burning sun that throws its sterilizing rays well under the arbor during the morning and afternoon. Tuberculosis is present in nearly every family, and it is difficult, if not impossible, for the agency physician to induce those stricken with it to remain out of doors; they invariably confine themselves within the bacilli-laden dwellings. The arbor is kept well swept and clean, as is the entire yard about the house, so that a more healthful habitation could not be devised. Occasionally one or mere sides of it may be inclosed with arrowwood through which the cool breezes readily find their way.
Beside each dwelling will be found a rectangular storehouse built with a framework of about the same shape and size as the arbor, but with walls of upright okatilla trunks or cactus ribs. The large bush, Baccharis glutenosa, is often used for this purpose. It is seen in its natural state in plate XXI, b; also surrounding the unit figure in plate XXXVI and forming the walls of the storehouse in plate XXXV, f. Plate IX, b, illustrates the okatilla, Fouquiera splendens, as it grows on the mesas within 2 miles of Sacaton. Each stem is crowned with a brilliant spray of scarlet flowers. Plate XXXV, d, shows the framework of a storehouse at the right and the finished wall of arrow bush in the center. Plate XXXV, e, is a complete storehouse with arrowwood bins for mesquite beans on the roof. Sometimes mud or adobe is added to the walls, which renders the structure equivalent to the Mexican jacal. The most noticeable feature is the door, made by piling up a great heap of unwieldy logs before the opening.
While not to be dignified by the name of house or dwelling, the Pima kitchen is an extremely practical affair, as will be realized by anyone who attempts to cook on an open fire exposed to storms. Plates VI, b, and XXXVI show the manner of arranging these windbreaks, for they are nothing more. In exposed situations the sand ​in time accumulates in a drift of sufficient height to require a change of location. Not all families have such a kitchen, and there is reason to believe that it has been adopted from neighboring tribes in recent years.
* ↑ It is worthy of note that the southern California Coahuilla [Kawia] similarly differ from other American Indians. In that tribe, also, the houses (jacals) are built by the men. See D.P. Barrows in American Anthropologist, n.s., 1901, III, 755.
* ↑ "For the larger dwellings nine are used—three on each side and one in the center." Bartlett, Personal Narrative, II, 233.
* ↑ Notes, p. 85.