What other factors affected American Indian architectural design?
Responding to the climate was not the only motivating force behind American Indian architecture. Technology, economics, social organization, religion and history all played important roles in how, where, when and why structures were built. For example, the materials in their environment certainly influenced their building techniques. But American Indian dwellings were incredibly varied. They were domical in form (wigwam, wikiup, tule hut, hogan), conical in form (tipi, earthlodge, pit house), and rectilinear in form (chickee, longhouse, pueblo, plank house). They had bent frames (wigwam, wikiup, grass house), post and beam frames (lean-to, plank house, long house, earthlodge) and compression frames (pueblo, tipi, hogan). The tribe’s social organization would determine where, how, when and by whom the dwellings were built. For instance, in some tribes, building the houses was the duty of the women. In other tribes, this duty was shared, whereas in still others, men were primarily respon
