Thompson (Nlaka'pamux) Winter Pit House: Circle Laid Out with Two Crossed Ropes, Four Rafters on Braces, Earth-Covered, Notched-Log Ladder (Teit, 1900)

"Though inconvenient, they were extremely warm."

Pick a spot with loose soil near water. Knot two bark ropes at the same length, 20 to 40 ft (6-12 m) for the diameter. Cross them at right angles, finding the middle by eye or by folding them. Stake the centre and the four ends, and scratch a circle through the four outer stakes with a stick.

Dig out the circle with digging sticks and flat-bladed scrapers and carry the earth out in baskets; pile it nearby for the roof. Teit gives no depth; ours: about 1.2-1.5 m.

Cut green trees for the heavy posts, sized to the pit by eye with a bark rope, bark them and haul them in with stout rope; they need not be squared. Cut and bark thin roof poles and bundle them.

Set four upright braces about 15 in. (38 cm) deep, stamping and beating the earth firm, with notched tops. Set the four main rafters' butts about 2 ft (60 cm) deep at the four marked points (lines NE-SW and NW-SE), resting on the braces and tied with willow withes; they do not meet in the middle. Lean side rafters against them from the ground. Tie horizontal poles across 30-60 cm apart, closer above the joints, and join the rafter tops with four heavy timbers to frame the square entrance.

Lay poles or split wood from the ground up to the entrance (not tied), cover them with pine needles or dry grass, then with the dug earth, beaten and stamped down hard. In wet country line it with cedar bark, inner side out.

Cut a big log with notches as a ladder, with a groove down its back for the hand. Stand it nearly upright from near the centre up through the entrance, lashed against the west side, top leaning slightly east. Put the fire at its foot behind a stone slab that shields the log.

From James Teit, *The Thompson Indians of British Columbia*, **Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, Jesup North Pacific Expedition** vol. I part IV (1900), pp. 192-194 and Figs. 135-136 (checked on the archive.org scan cihm_16242). Houses held fifteen to thirty people and were lived in from December to February or March; entering, you called out 'A'la!' so the cooks could cover the food. The ladder top was often carved or painted. Teit gives no pit depth: ours.