The United States of America, now a well established and powerful nation, was once, like any developed country, quite the opposite. As it instituted its presence in the New World, the young nation had to adopt the ideas and fundamentals of many more established nations as a foundation for itself. This adoption of other cultures is best shown through the multitude of architectural styles developed in the United States from the colonial period to the end of the Antebellum Period. Although in modern America, with the increasing awareness and concern of cultural appropriation recent, more liberal, generations have embraced, would the original adoption of these unique styles specific to certain established cultural groups within the Americas be a form of misappropriation?
Just as American history did, architecture within the United States did not begin with the emergence of the colonists, but in the Pre-Columbian era with the Native Americans. Generally, historians consider there to be about eight regions of the United States in which Native Americans lived Pre-Columbian; each differing in religion, land, food, and language. Whilst every individual region and tribe played a role in the history of the United States, two specific (but very different) regions outranked the rest in architectural advancement.
The Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands were some of the first of many indigenous peoples to encounter their European counterparts, and it shows in the construction of many of the very early Colonial homes. The Iroquois for instance, ‘built long communal dwellings capable of housing more than a dozen families on raised sleeping platforms. The buildings were post and beam construction with the addition of bent sapling frames’. The buildings resembled those of the Neolithic long house of early European farmers in which many architectural styles derived, especially that of the Vikings’ longhouses. The Vikings were some of the first European settlers in North America, and being that there is significant proof of trade between the Norse and the northern Indigenous people of North America, it is more than likely that this early form of architecture became known to many northern tribes.
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Although, there is little knowledge of the extent to which these Native longhouses played a role in the building of later colonial-style homes; as many of the original, more native-inspired design choices became obsolete as colonists became aware of the limitations of such architecture. A prominent example of one such change being the Plymouth Colony. The Pilgrims first used many Native inspired architectural techniques—due to the limitation of resources and disease that swept through the colony before and during its first Winter—such as thatched roofing. This proved to be both dangerous and labor-intensive as the roofing often caught fire due to the extrusive chimneys that occupied colonial homes. As a response, the colony put in place a law that required the construction of any new housing to be of plank.
Although a majority of modern American homes still follow the styles of the original colonial homes, there have still been many changes as techniques and technology advances; meaning that any small influences these Eastern Woodland Natives did have on this particular kind of architecture have long since been extinct.
In contrast, on the other side of the continent, The Spanish took a more headlong approach to the adoption of Native Architecture. Conquistadors sought fortune, following tales of cities of gold; whilst spreading Catholicism and conquest in the Southwestern United States and Mexico. One such conquered group was the Puebloans in the Four Corners region of the Southwest; who resided within densely arranged communities consisting of small cubic buildings of adobe and clay. The Spaniards took control of many of these Pueblo communities in the early 1600s, making provinces and missions which combined both Pueblo Indian and Spanish architectural styles. A notable and controversial example of one such establishment is the San Geronimo de Taos, a Spanish mission constructed within the Taos Pueblo; known to be one of the first (and sadly last) Pueblo communities of the region.
The Taos people continually resisted Spanish religious and cultural influence, leading a multitude of revolts that ended many times in the destruction of the church. However successful the Taos were in their resistance, the Spanish had forever changed the principles of Pueblo architecture. Even today, the traditional holes in the roofs with which ladders rested for access are gone, while windows and doorways riddle the isolated Taos Pueblo community where none once stood, along with many more foundational changes as well. Using this combined architecture, the Spanish established missions and cities in California from 1769-1823, creating white adobe and plaster buildings like Casa de la Guerra, and conspicuous coastal cities such as Santa Barbara.
While some Native influences on American architecture are still prominent even today, others have long since been forgotten. However, this research is not a question of how much of a role Natives had on American architecture, but one of the ethics of which these influences were obtained; thus the inclusion of even the Eastern Woodland Indians was necessary. More often than not, the results of similar research overwhelmingly seems to be unethical obtainment when involving Native Americans.
After a great accumulation of research on the history of American Architecture, this conclusion is no exception. Much of architecture is an accumulation of ideas and practices of many different cultures and peoples. It comes as no surprise that American architecture is no different; it involves a multitude of different styles and techniques from across the globe. In spite of this, the methods of which Native American architecture was obtained was more larceny than accumulative, especially with the Spanish in the Southwest. There was no exchange of ideas, only a forceful attempt to convert old ones. The derivation of early American architectural styles from the indigenous peoples of the United States, is by modern standards, misappropriation due to the attempted cultural erasure that came with it.
