Chickee

Chikee or Chickee ("house" in the Creek and Mikasuki languages spoken by the Seminoles and Miccosukees) is a shelter supported by posts, with a raised floor, a thatched roof and open sides. The chickee style of architecture - palmetto thatch over a bald cypress log frame - was adopted by Seminoles during the Second and Third Seminole War as U.S. troops pushed them deeper into the Everglades and surrounding territory (prior to the Second Seminole War, the Seminoles had lived in log cabins^[1]). Similar structures were used by the tribes in south Florida when the Spanish first arrived in the 16th century.^[2] Each chickee had its own purpose and together they were organized within a camp type community. Chickees were used for cooking, sleeping and eating.

Modern Use

Chickees continue to be used by Native American Villages of the Miccosukee in the Everglades.^[3] Some upscale homes in southern Florida feature chickee-inspired buildings as garden or poolside structures. Even a few restaurants in Florida still use this unique design to attract visitors.

Chickees are also used in backcountry areas of Everglades National Park where mangroves or large bodies of water prevent camping on dry land. Made and maintained primarily for backcountry campers, these wooden structures stand several feet above the water and can usually accommodate 4-5 campers. These structures have portable restrooms. Some "double chickees" are linked together by a walkway and can accommodate 8-10 people.There are also about 8-10 houses in one village of the chickees. Chickees are very helpful, especially in the rain. Similar structures, while not referred to as chickees, are present further north, in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southern Georgia.

Connection with Mesoamerica

The Muskogean spelling for chickee is "chiki." Among Creeks and Seminoles speaking the Hitchiti language, chiki is today the generic word for "house." Chiki is also the word for house among the Totonacs of Mexico. However, Creeks, who speak the Muskogee language, use the word, chiki, only to describe a summer house or open sided residence typical of Florida. Muskogees use the word "chuko" or "choko" to describe a house with solid walls, suitable for occupancy in cold weather. "Choko" is the Puntun and Itza Maya word for "warm or hot."

Totonac chiki's are residential structures consisting of prefabricated wood frames that are encased with adobe or concrete after being erected and tied together. This same type of prefabricated house, called "post ditch construction" by archaeologists in the United States, first appeared in what is now the State of Georgia around 750 AD and became commonplace after the founding of a settlement around 900 AD, now known as Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon, GA. The use of post-ditch construction spread outward from Ocmulgee to other areas of the Southeastern United States. By 1050 AD, most houses at the large indigenous community now called Cahokia, IL, also were of post-ditch construction.

It is likely that the word chiki originally applied only to prefabricated houses, but over time came to generically mean "house" among Hitchiti-speaking Creek Indians. When some Creek towns moved southward into Florida during the 1700s, they used the same word to describe lightly framed houses suitable for a semi-tropical climate.

References

1. ^ Seminole Tribe of Florida - Chickee - accessed August 14, 2009
2. ^ *Austin, Daniel W. (1997). "The Glades Indians and the Plants they Used. Ethnobotany of an Extinct Culture." The Palmetto, 17(2):7 -11.[1] - accessed August 14, 2009
3. ^ Lundin, Leigh (2006-08). "Swamped". Ellery Queen (New York: Dell Magazines) (8). http://www.themysteryplace.com/eqmm/. Retrieved 2010-02-02.

Categories: House types | Seminole tribe | Traditional Native American dwellings | Indigenous peoples of North America stubs | Architecture stubs