pueblo
...ade up of sun-dried bricks. To make these bricks, workers mix sandy clay or loam with water and a small quantity of straw, grass or similar materials. The straw holds the mixture together, giving it greater stability. Then, the mixture is placed into wooden forms that shape the clay into bricks. The wood is then removed when the bricks are dry. Then they bake the bricks in the sun from ten days to two weeks making them hard and durable. Building a house takes great work and dedication. Mostly family and friends are involved in building the adobe house and they were paid with daily meals. The men were the masons or builders and the women were the plasterers. The first step to make their houses was to gather up all the materials needed. Materials came from as close as possible. (Burby 43) The next step would be, the men walking all the way to the forest or mountains and chopping down tree trunks for roof support beams. They would have to carry the heavy logs on their backs for many miles. The wood beams were used for the roof and they supported the whole house. As with most things in Pueblo life, house building was accompanied by prayers and ceremonies. (Yue 26) The village chief would prepare prayer feathers to protect the house and those who live in it. The chief would take four eagle feathers and put one on each corner of the house and cover each feather with a stone. He would them sprinkle sacred meal and chant a song which would bless the house. If using the adobe bricks, after the walls were constructed, they would then be covered with mud or stucco. This would seal the walls and make the house stronger. Another less common way to make adobe walls was to use dampened earth pressed down in building forms similar to those used for pored concrete. The walls in every kind of adobe were made between seven and eight feet high and up to twenty inches thick. The houses were about twenty feet long by twelve feet wide. Beams were laid about two feet apart. Then they would place twigs and brush and weave them and then cover them with earth to finish the roof. Most of the rooms were square in shape with a flat roof and built in terraced stories. When the roofs, the walls and the floors were finished, the chief would do another ceremony with four more sacred eagle feathers, but this time he would tie them to the central support beam, and again say a prayer and chant an Indian song. It would bless the house and give the family safety. The adobes did not really have front doors or large windows. It gave them protection from intruders. They got in and out of their houses by rooftop. The Pueblos had a movable ladder with trap doors. Also the houses had to have drainage systems. The rain, even though it was very scarce and storms were short, could damage the whole house. They used drain pipes made from carved out tree trunks that would get rid of all the water as quick as possible. All the houses were close together and built mostly touching. Little and narrow passageways were built in, between and around the villages. All the houses that were put together were called plazas. Every house had a chimney and trough. They really needed these for cooking purposes. The chimney would get rid of all the smoke and the trough was a storage compartment and a grind stone tool that was very versatile. They would grind corn and salsa and food items and then store them in little cabinets in the trough. It was very useful. Today the Pueblos still live in Adobe houses. They are much more modern, but have the...