Day-to-Day Life 
The residents slept on raised decks that lined the perimeter of the longhouse. Wood that fueled the fire pits was stored below the decks. Bulrush or reed mats covered the decks, rolled mats were used as pillows and wool blankets or dressed skins were used as bed covers.
The sound of smoke holes opening, light from the opened holes illuminating the longhouse and the sound of the morning fires would signal a new day.
The dress of the day depended on the weather or activity. Clothing was kept in a large coiled basket made of cedar roots or birch bark. Shirts or capes of woven cedar bark or sewn buckskin, robes of groundhog, rabbit or bear skins sewn together, and skirts of bulrush. For everyday wear men and women wore a short apron or sash made of wool.
The first task for a mother might be to change a diaper made of cedar or nettles bark and moss. For the boys, a mandatory early morning swim in the river would be part of the morning routine.
Around the fire pit were several cedar chests that contained blankets, beautifully decorated circular cedar mats for serving food, and other family valuables.
Clayoquot Girl
Source: Northwestern University Library
Photo by: E.S. Curtis
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