The furnishings of Wampanoag houses were simple. This was necessary
because of the Indians’ mobile life. All household equipment,
including the covering of the house itself, had to be carried from
camp to camp by the women of the household.
The interiors of houses were lined with bulrush matting. This
was decorated with painting or “embroidery”.[303] Beds were
family-sized—about six to eight feet across.[304] They were raised a
foot to a foot and a half off the ground.[305] Forked sticks were set
into the ground to hold poles, across which planks were laid.[306]
Rush mats served as the mattress, and the sleepers covered themselves
with skins, dressed with the hair left on.[307] Such a bed served the
entire family and any visitors they might have.
The remainder of the furnishings consisted mainly of the various
containers used for storage, cooking, and food service.[308] Cooking
pots were sometimes made of clay, but if possible iron, brass, or
copper kettles were obtained from the Europeans, since these were
not so easily broken.[309] Birch bark pails were used as water
containers, while various sizes of bags and baskets served to store
food.[310] Carved wooden bowls, plates, and spoons were also part of
the furniture, and some milling equipment probably occupied an indoor
place.[311]
Indoor fires were always kept burning.[312] Fuel was either what
windfalls could be gathered or an occasional larger tree which was
cut and dragged in to be fed into the fireplace by degrees.[313]
Over the fireplace, which was a simple hearth made of field stones,
there was often a square frame of sticks, supported on forked
branches.[314] Pots were hung from this framework. There was almost
always a pot of boiling food over the fire, or else there was meat
suspended on a stick whose end was buried in the ground.[315] Drying
fish or meat was also kept in the house at times—to benefit from
the fire when the weather outside was damp. Bundles of rushes, bast
fiber, hemp, and the like for making mats and baskets probably would
have about completed the inventory of household goods, save for
personal possessions and tools.[316]