This title expires January 31st, 2027

Subject(s): Anthropology, Archaeology, Architecture, Documentary, Family Studies/Home Economics, First Nations Studies, History, Indigenous Issues, Indigenous Peoples, Science, Social Studies
Grade Level: 9 - 12, Post Secondary, Adult

Whether living a nomadic existence or in sprawling urban centres, Indigenous people created iconic, innovative and diverse architectural styles. Their homes and community structures fulfilled the needs and values of their society.   

Program Four contains the following chapters:  

• Pueblo Houses
• Inka Road System
• Caral
• Snow Houses
• Tenochtitlan
• Big Houses
• Tiwanaku
• Tipi

Running Time: 44:40 Country of Origin: Canada Captions:

Producer: 1491 Productions Inc. Copyright Date: 2018 Language: English

1. Pueblo Houses - 1491  4:00
   Indigenous people have lived in south western North America for...
   Indigenous people have lived in south western North America for more than 12,000 years. Early Pueblo people lived in naturally insulated underground pit houses. Around two thousand years ago, they began to cultivate maize, beans and squash. Farming led to a more settled way of life and eventually to the growth of communal villages and towns in the southwest. Architecture changed dramatically as the Pueblo people began to construct rectangular attached family houses above ground. Twelve hundred years ago, multi-story apartment buildings began appearing across the southwest. These adobe structures were built under rock overhangs and were home to hundreds and even thousands of people. A drought about 900 years ago forced them to abandon their dwellings in Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde and find new places to live.
2. Inka Road System - 1491  5:30
   About a thousand years ago, a vast road system connected...
   About a thousand years ago, a vast road system connected millions of people in South America. Originally constructed by the Wari, this ancient highway was expanded by the Inka and facilitated trade, movement of armies, and ceremonial activities. Eventually 40,000 kilometers of road connected cities and villages of this vast empire. Their suspension bridges were marvels of engineering and walls kept desert roads clear of sand. This vast highway system was instrumental in creating one of the largest empires in the world before fourteen ninety one.
3. Caral - 1491  4:00
   Long before the Inca Empire, the people of northern Peru...
   Long before the Inca Empire, the people of northern Peru designed and built one of the earliest known urban centers in the Americas. The buildings in the region, including those in the city of Caral, are at least fifty five hundred years old. The city featured pyramids, sunken circular plazas, platform mounds and residential neighborhoods. The buildings were constructed on a foundation of quarried stone and river rock, using innvovative design techniques that prevented earthquake damage. This ancient society had superior engineering skills, advanced social and cultural structure, and a strong sense of community pride.
4. Snow Houses - 1491  5:30
   In the high Arctic region of North America, indigenous people...
   In the high Arctic region of North America, indigenous people had to adapt to the extreme weather conditions that existed most of the year. Tents were used for summer homes, and in the winter, whale bones, sod, hides and snow where the building materials commonly used for housing. For thousands of years, snow houses were used for hunting expeditions and as semi-permanent winter homes. Igloos are dome shaped, built of blocks of snow, with a low entrance that traps the heat, sleeping and storage areas along the wall and a central communal area for cooking and activities.
5. Tenochtitlan - 1491  5:30
   Over six hundred years ago, the Aztec civilization was at its...
   Over six hundred years ago, the Aztec civilization was at its peak in central Mexico. Founded in thirteen forty-five, Tenochtitlan was the capital city of the Aztec Empire, and home to close to 200,000 people. It was the Aztec political, economic, and spiritual centre, but it was also one of the most impressive technical achievements in the world. In this area of volcanic ranges, a gigantic land-locked lake collected all the glacial meltwater. The Aztecs during Montezuma's reign built a gigantic artificial island in the lake, and at the centre was a plaza surrounded by palaces, temples, workshops, marketplaces, dikes, levees, and causeways. It was among the most impressive engineering feats in the ancient world, the largest city ever created by indigenous people.
6. Big Houses - 1491  5:30
   In northwest North America, massive red cedar logs were used to...
   In northwest North America, massive red cedar logs were used to build structures called big houses that were used for both shared family residences and community ceremonies. Several families working together to construct the house with different clans and families helping each other. Inside a big house were four house posts that related to the family origin story. Today, big houses are still used for potlatches and other ceremonies by indigenous communities throughout the Pacific Northwest.
7. Tiwanaku - 1491  5:30
   Between nine hundred and seventeen hundred years ago, Tiwanaku...
   Between nine hundred and seventeen hundred years ago, Tiwanaku was the dominant society in a region that included parts of Bolivia, Peru, and Chile. The empire's main city was built on the southern shores of Lake Titicaca. The seven-tiered pyramid called Akapana dominated the city skyline. The city also featured impressive works of monolithic art, running water, sewers, and painted walls. The buildings were made from massive red sandstone blocks that originated in a quarry 10 kilometers away. The temples, palaces, observatories, and pyramids had both religious and astrological functions. The massive Gate of the Sun, the moat surrounding the city, and the water-borne causeways were all devoted to ceremonial edification of the elites. Tiwanaku was a large urban center with a regional population in the hundreds of thousands at the same time. Further to the north in Peru, the Wari civilization was expanding its power base and engaging in conquest and conflict interactions. The Tiwanaku and the Wari were the two major civilizations in this area in their time.
8. Tipi - 1491  5:30
   The indigenous large game hunters of North America relied on...
   The indigenous large game hunters of North America relied on elk, buffalo and cariboo for food which meant they were migrating constantly, sometimes over hundreds of kilometers across North America's central plains or subarctic regions. Housing had to be portable and tipis (a word from the Dakota language) were the perfect solution for this nomadic lifestyle. This conical structure is made up of multiple poles covered by animal hide or birch bark; they were relatively easy to put up, take down and transport from one encampment to the next. The door always faced to the east because of the prevailing winds from the west. Women were primarily the manufacturers of the hide and the builders of the tipis, and it was almost exclusively the women's responsibility to pack up the teepee and properly put it together for transportation. This technology is possibly thousands and thousands of years old.

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