Winter House. The Chickasaws built a stout frame of logs and covered it with a layer of oak or hickory splints, six or seven inches of clay and a thick thatch of long grass. The entrance hall, curving along the outside wall was low and narrow, to impede winds and invading enemies.The fort was an enclosure of stout logs set at an angle sloping inward. Crouched in a trench inside the wall, the Chickasaws shot at attackers through-ground level slits. The fort idea was probably suggested by the British to combat another European “import” siege tactic.Summer House. Trader Adair wrote that the Chickasaws could erect a summer house in one day, using no tools but a hatchet and knife. A cypress shingle roof, pine or cypress clapboard walls, and a covering of bark held on with lashed-on saplings made a shelter, the side and gables of which are bullet-proof.Winter warmth. Each day a fire was built on the floor to furnish heat through the night. The British trader Adair reported that “while the new fire is burning down, the house, for want of air, is full of heat and smoky darkness, and all this time a number of them lie of their broad bed places with their heads wrapped up.
