Re-enactment Shelter

Currently "oil cloth" leanto's and "trail tarps" are popular with Native re-enactors and frontier re-enactors, but there really is not a lot of documentation of oil cloth "trail tarp" use among Native Americans in the 18th century. Iron tent pegs and laid rope seem like a waste of resources in a shelter in the context of the period so when its used in a trail tarp "lean to" or "plow" it stands out as a compromise to me.

Documentation shows Indians slept out in the open when traveling and didn't worry that much unless they had decided to stay in a place for awhile. Former Kahnawake captive Col James Smith describes this shelter: "As stormy weather appeared, I ordered Jamie to make us a shelter, which he did by erecting forks and poles, and covering them with cane tops, like a fodder house." This sounds a lot like the 3 sided leantos I've made since boyhood, after seeing one in Larry Dean Olsen's "Outdoor Survival Skills" book. These kind of lean-tos don't require any cordage to build. Another quick shelter Smith and a Kahnawake friend for a winter hunting camp he describes: "The next morning we cut down a lynn tree, peeled bark and made a snug shelter, facing the southeast, with a large log betwixt us and the north west; we made a good fire before us, and scaffolded up our meat at one side." Not a single mention of oil cloth or canvas. Father Rasles mentions that the Abenaki Penobscot he travels with merely wrap up in the birch bark mats they are carrying when they travel between winter inland hunting camps and spring coastal fishing camps.

One of my new projects is to create a re-usable, portable shelter made from natural materials based on the three sided leanto design. It will use weak cordage (jute string) to hold together and get covered by cat-tail or rush mats. Of course at re-enactments and rendezvous we are assigned a plot in the field and not free to find a good natural sleeping place so whatever I use must be portable.

On another front I want to design and make some portable slab camp furniture. I love the folding slat back chairs, particularly after running around all day in the field...and I might make some one day, but I want to use logs and sticks for my camp.