How Native Americans Harnessed the Environment to Build Their Homes

It’s easy to imagine American frontier folk felling trees to build log cabins. But what about homes made from sod, clay—or even ice?

Long before colonization, Indigenous communities built and designed dwellings perfectly adapted to their environments, using materials such as sod to construct earth lodges, plants and trees to build longhouses and blocks of ice for igloos. These structures not only relied on nearby resources and traditional tools but also provided exceptional protection from the extreme temperatures of their regions.

“Architecture expresses a people’s relationship with the land, environment and non-human world, guided by principles of stewardship and harmony,” says architect Wanda Della Costa (Saddle Lake Cree Nation, Northern Alberta Canada), who founded the Tawaw Architecture Collective in Calgary. “The aim is to uplift the connection to land and place by embedding local land relationships, ecology and traditional knowledge within the built form.”

Here are five examples of traditional Indigenous architecture:

Where They Were Built: The Inuit of the Arctic lands of Alaska, Canada and Greenland built igloos (Inuit word: “iglu”) as their primary dwellings. In areas like the vast, snow-covered lands of Nunavut—the largest and northernmost territories of Canada, where winter temperatures can plunge to minus 40°F—they used the most abundant material available: snow and ice.

What They’re Made Of: With no trees in the Arctic, the Inuit cut compacted snow into blocks using large knives made of bone or metal. They stacked the blocks into a spiral that formed a dome. A hole at the top was left for ventilation.

Why It Works: The large blocks, sealed on the outside with snow, create a formidable barrier to wind and the cold. “Loosely packed snow has air spaces between… crystals, which cause it to act as an insulator,” write University of Leicester scholars Steph Jinks, Robert Hopton and Tom Glossop in a paper about the thermal properties of igloos. Once people are inside, body heat circulates via conduction and radiation, melting and refreezing the inner walls enough to create an icy shell that traps warmth. Outside temperatures could dip to minus 49 degrees, while the inside might reach as high as 60 degrees.

Where They Were Built: Pueblo peoples of the Southwest—including communities in Arizona, New Mexico, western Texas and northern Mexico—built multistory dwellings in hot, arid regions, sometimes carving them directly into cliffs.

What They’re Made Of: Builders used stone, earth and clay, with regional variations. The Hopi carved dwellings from cliffs while others, like the Yaqui, fashioned Adobe bricks from mud, sand and straw.

Why It Worked: Stone provided stability against desert storms and served as an effective insulator, moderating the drastic temperature swings between day and night.

Cultural Context: Designed for multigenerational living, adobe homes fostered community resilience, says Patty Talahongva, a Hopi journalist who hails from the Sichomovi village in northeastern Arizona, where her tribe still resides. The pueblo of Oraibi, continuously occupied since at least A.D. 1100—is among North America’s oldest villages.

Echoes Today: “We are the original condominium builders,” Talahongva says, referring to the pueblos’ multilevel construction.

Where They Were Built: In the forested Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, many farming and hunting tribes built longhouses. The Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois) of the American-Canadian borderlands became especially known for them as they designed structures to endure both bitter winters and hot, humid summers.

What They’re Made Of: Builders bent flexible tree saplings, typically elm, into curved frames then covered them with overlapping sheets of elm bark, an excellent insulator. To further protect from the elements, they doubled the bark layers and lined interiors with mats, skins and furs. Haudenosaunee longhouses usually stood about 20 feet high and could extend as long as 200 feet or more.

Why It Worked: Longhouses were modular and multileveled, allowing expansion for growing communities. Families lived communally in individual compartments off a central aisle, where shared fires provided warmth.

Cultural Context: Haudenosaunee means “People of the Longhouse.” These homes served not just as dwellings but also centers for storytelling and teaching tribal customs.

Echoes Today: In 1997, the Seneca nation built a replica of a 1670 longhouse to honor its cultural importance. It remains open to the public.

Where They Were Built: For centuries, Indigenous nations of the Northern Plains—including the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara (the Three Affiliated Tribes)— built circular, semi-subterranean earth lodges topped with domes that could house 10 to 20 people.

What They’re Made Of: Constructed from thick sod, willow branches and prairie grass layered over large cottonwood posts and split logs arranged in a circle, these lodges could reach 60 feet in diameter and 15 feet high. Entire communities came together to build them, typically in about 10 days.

Why It Worked: Dense earthen walls provided excellent insulation year-round. Inside, raised platforms served as beds, and a central pit stored food.

Cultural Context: Earth lodges were both homes and communal gathering spaces for ceremony and storytelling. The Hidatsa believed the lodge’s spirit resided in its four central posts.

Echoes Today: The Three Affiliated Tribes still regard the earth lodge as sacred. In 1995, the National Park Service built a 40-foot replica in North Dakota.

Where They Were Built: Indigenous nations of the Pacific Northwest—from southeast Alaska to northern California—built cedar plank houses to withstand cold, wet winters. Among them were the Chinook, Haida, Tlingit, Kwakiutl and Coast Salish people.

What They’re Made Of: For the most part, builders crafted tall rectangular, sloped-roof structures from red cedar posts and planks, sometimes over shallow earth excavations. Some of these coastal communal structures measured up to 400 feet long and 30 feet wide—once the largest in North America.

Why It Worked: Durable and easily repaired, cedar plank houses could last for centuries, but for many Northwest Coast tribes, they were also designed to be dismantled seasonally. According to Christina Wallace, a scholar of Coast Salish architecture, communities would transport the planks via canoe to reuse them at their temporary summer homes while leaving the main post-and-beam frame standing for their return.

Cultural Context: Archaeological evidence suggests this style dates back at least 7,000 years. These houses served as multipurpose community centers: “a food-processing and storage plant… a workshop, recreation center, temple, theater, and fortress,” as anthropologist Wayne Suttles described them. They were places for living, crafting, ceremony and celebration.