'Ancient' Homes Recreated for Modern Kids

By Bill Sontag
bill.sontag@delrionewsherald.com
Staff Writer, Del Rio News-Herald

Reprinted with permission of the Del Rio News-Herald
Published August 6, 2005

Steve Norman, Langtry artisan and flintknapper, is a keen observer of long-abandoned lifestyles along the Pecos River and its confluence with the Rio Grande.

Now, Norman puts his expertise and energies into improving the educational potential of Shumla School, about 17 miles north of Comstock.

The 52-year-old craftsman is building three lightweight shelters, using materials as tough and resilient as his own lean, wiry and sun-baked frame.

Three wikiups, dome-shaped accommodations such as those built by nomadic, mid-archaic occupants four- or five thousand years ago, are springing up on the desert near Shumla School's modern pavilion and classroom.

Norman's constructions of bent and lashed western black willow poles define circles on the ground roughly 15 feet in diameter, big enough to seat 10 kids and a couple of adults.

Before bending the willow, he and his wife, Brenda, stripped off the ropy, chocolate-colored bark. "Sometimes it'll strip off 15 to 20 feet long," Norman said Thursday.

The strands were carefully collected, moistened and used to wrap, knot and lash all the intersections of poles, up, over and around the structure.

When the wikiup superstructures are completed, Norman will thatch each with abundant river cane, and then thatch over that layer with salt willow.

A single large entrance will provide ingress and egress to the rooms with ceilings seven feet high in the center.

The ancients likely used wikiup shelters for short-term occupancy, according to Shumla School director
Dr. Carolyn Boyd. "They were good shade, maybe shelters for a season, whenever the weather was just fine," Boyd said.

"We made 'em just like big, upside-down baskets, because these were basket people," Norman chuckled.

"We talk a lot about all kinds of living structures," Boyd said, "but without actually being in one, you can't really imagine the work that goes into building them."

Boyd wants students and campers of all ages at the various programs offered by Shumla School to witness, first-hand, the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the nomads who first relied on structures similar to Norman's wikiups.

Boyd and her staff also erect tipis during camps, workshops and seminars at the school, and she relishes the contrasts and comparisons the two styles of living structures will offer.

Steve and Brenda Norman will craft most of the furnishings for the wikiups, too.

Those, Boyd explained, will include fibrous bags, cordage, sandals, and other manifestations of ancient "material" culture that would be important to occupants of the wikiup shelters.

Shumla School participants will notice the technological differences between tipi and wikiup.

For example, some Plains Indian tipi-builders used pottery, so clay pieces may be seen in Shumla tipis, while wikiup vessels will be limited to baskets.

Norman's next task may be to build more shade-shelters, similar materials, but just a couple of walls and a roof. The simple structures will enhance safety and comfort of kids, adults and staff.

But the overall thrust of the natural materials shelters is, for Boyd, boiled down to this: "Education, education, education, and a little shade to boot."

The first to be educated by and in the Normans' craftsmanship will be participants in Shumla School's quintet of one-day "Pecos Day Camps," now slated for Sept. 14, 16, Nov. 9, 11, and Dec. 16.

The popular "camps" provide hands-on experiences for fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders. "These teach math and history with archeology and history as the platform," Boyd said.

"Teachers should start calling us now, 432-292-4848, to set up reserved dates for their classes," she said, adding the reminder that there are no tuition fees thanks to funding provided by The Bank & Trust, the Brown Foundation and a grant from Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.

Schools provide bus transportation and kids bring their own lunches, but all materials, workbooks, and instructors are provided at no cost.

This year, the school landscape is enhanced, Boyd said, by the abilities and products of the Normans. "These good folks are not just giving their time and talents. They're giving their hearts to our programs, too."