Mae's Real Stories

When Miriam and Alice visited the museum in Ann Arbor, we looked at some miniature moels of Indian villages in Michigan and throughout the United States. They were a lot of fun to see. Indians and other Americans have lived in many kinds of houses. I like to travel to places with lots of different kinds of houses.

Some American Indians lived in villages called Pueblos. In Taos, New Mexico, some Indians still live in a very beautiful Pueblo and do things the way that Indians did them a long time ago. Other Indians have changed their way of life. In Taos, some Indians have two homes: one in the Pueblo, and another one nearby that has electricity, TV, and other modern things. This is the Taos Pueblo:

Some pueblos were built into the sides of mountains like this one (next photo) in Bandelier Park not far from Taos, NM. Several hundred years ago some Indians built this village, but they only lived in it for a few generations, and then they all went away.

A long time ago, Indians in Utah had food storage caves in the rock walls. We saw one of these storage places when we were on a trip in Utah:

We stayed in an old-fashioned cabin in Zion National Park, not like the Indians had, but like Americans 75 years ago always stayed in.

In New Mexico and Utah, the climate is very dry. The Indians need to grow grain and other things and store them for winter. They need houses that will protect them from sun and cold weather too.

The native Hawaiians lived near the sea on islands formed by volcanos. They built houses from coral rocks and from lava rocks, and created shelters from palm tree parts and other plants. Once in Hawaii we saw some native people performing a ceremony from their old times, in a park at the site of one of the ancient villages. Here are some photos of that ceremony.