TEPEE

also spelled Tipi, tall tent dwelling of the Indians of the American Great Plains. Although it is often thought to be the dwelling used by all North American Indians, only the Plains tribes, representing about one-fifth of them, ever used the tepee, and they only for the last two or three hundred years. The introduction of horses, guns, and metal knives by the Spanish in the early 18th century enabled the Plains Indians to become swiftly moving nomads and enhanced their successful pursuit of the buffalowhose hide offered shelter. They traded their stationary huts for the portable tepee, which could be easily folded and dragged by a horse. Probably first used by the Arctic Indians as a summer home, the tepee thus became the year-round dwelling of the Plains Indians. The tepee is made by stretching dressed and fitted buffalo skins over a skeleton of 20 to 30 wooden poles, all slanted in toward a central point and tied together a short distance from the top, giving the appearance of an inverted funnel. An adjustable flap is left open at the top to allow smoke to escape, and a flap at the bottom serves as a doorway. Tepees are usually from 12 to 20 feet (3.5 to 6 m) high. The Indians devoted much of the nonhunting winter season to decorating their tepees with colourful paintings of animals and the hunt. The beauty and gracefulness of the tepee has made it the popular image of the home of all Indians, although such dwellings as the wigwam, wickiup, hogan, igloo, longhouse, and others were at least as important.