Fire is both light and heat. I built a great little fire pit in my tipi. When the fire was burning bright, it was all the light I needed. The peace I found quietly by the fire on winter nights in the tipi is impossible to exaggerate.

It seems impossible that you could safely have an open fire in a little 12-foot tipi, but it works beatufiully. If the flaps are set properly and the fire is high enough, you don’t need a chimney. The tipi is a chimney. Sparks can be startling since wood will pop and crackle, but the sparks flare out before they make contact with anything.

Even when it was bitterly cold and snowing outside, it was cozy and warm in the tipi, sometimes too warm. I had to open the door to let the cold air in. Sometimes, I sat half in and half out in the doorway because it was so warm … and this was the dead of a New England winter.

There is something very soothing about a tipi. Is it the shape? Of maybe it was just that it was my own place that I had — with help — built. It’s the only thing I ever built. I was very proud of it.

I painted the tipi door from a design I found online. Not an exact reproduction. Not even close, but all thing considered, not bad.

Native Commandments

Jasper Saunkeah, Cherokee

Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect.
Remain close to the Great Spirit.
Show great respect for your fellow beings.
Work together for the benefit of all Mankind.
Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.

Do what you know to be right.
Look after the well being of mind and body.
Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.
Be truthful and honest at all times.
Take full responsibility for your actions.
Let us greet the dawn of a new day
when all can live as one with nature
and peace reigns everywhere.

Oh Great Spirit, bring to our brothers
the wisdom of Nature and the knowledge
that if her laws are obeyed
this land will again flourish
and grasses and trees will grow as before.

Guide those that through their councils
seek to spread the wisdom of their leaders to all people.
Heal the raw wounds of the earth
and restore to our soul the richness
which strengthens men’s bodies
and makes them wise in their councils.

Bring to all the knowledge that great cities
live only through the bounty
of the good earth beyond their paved streets
and towers of stone and steel.

Related articles

• The First People (firstpeople.us)
• Sweden: All’s quiet in the not so wild west (independent.co.uk)
• Would you like to sleep in a tepee? (upwoods.wordpress.com)
• Crow Fair brings generations together (missoulian.com)
• The 12-Foot Teepee (Amazon.com)
• How to travel through time: Two Winters in a Tipi (matadornetwork.com)