How many people could live in a chickee?
Made and maintained primarily for backcountry campers, these wooden structures stand several feet above the water and can usually accommodate four to five campers. Some “double chickees” are linked by a walkway and can accommodate eight to ten people.
How long do chickee huts last?
The chickee structure should last about ten years and needs to be re-thatched every five years. Several Seminole Tribal members make a living building custom chickees for both commercial and private interests.
What were Seminole houses like?
The Seminole people lived in houses called chickees. Seminole chickees were made of wood and plaster, and the roofs were thatched with palmetto fiber. They also began building their houses on wooden stilts that raised the floor two or three feet off the ground.
What kind of housing did the Seminoles have?
Seminole Indians lived in a home called a Chickee. A chickee was a house built on stilts usually about three or four feet above the ground. A chickee was usually about nine feet wide and sixteen feet long, with a wooden platform which served as the floor and a thatched roof.
What are chickee houses made of?
The Chickee stilt house was constructed from cypress logs used a posts to support a raised open-sided floor and a thatched roof. The thatch was weaved from palmetto palm leaves held in place with vines or thin ropes (cordage).
What does a chickee house look like?
A chickee is a structure marked by a raised floor, thatched roof, and open sides. Chickee huts were adopted by the Seminole tribe during the 1850s as the US Army pushed them deeper into the Everglades. The structures, built using a cypress frame and palmetto thatches, were easily built quickly.
What’s a chickee hut?
Also called chickee huts, tiki huts are shelters supported by wooden posts, a thatched roof and open sides and they are exempt from the Florida Building Code if they are built by members of the Seminole or Miccosukee tribes.
What does a chickee hut look like?
What do the Seminole call themselves?
Unconquered People
The Seminoles of Florida call themselves the “Unconquered People,” descendants of just 300 Indians who managed to elude capture by the U.S. army in the 19th century.
What did the Seminole believe in?
Seminole tribes generally follow Christianity, both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. They also observe their traditional Native religion, which is expressed through the stomp dance and the Green Corn Ceremony held at their ceremonial grounds. Indigenous peoples have practiced Green Corn rituals for centuries.
What type of shelter would a chickee be considered?
What type of shelter would a chickee be considered? Chikee or Chickee (“house” in the Creek and Mikasuki languages spoken by the Seminoles and Miccosukees) is a shelter supported by posts, with a raised floor, a thatched roof and open sides. Chickees are also known as chickee huts, stilt houses, or platform dwellings.
Who made the chickee house?
The Chickee Stilt House was a highly distinctive structure used as a shelter or house style that was built by the Seminole tribe of Florida. The Chickee was raised on stilts and open on four sides, with a wood platform and thatched roof.