In off-the-freeway pockets of rural America, pre-Columbian customs for beating the heat and fighting the cold are still practiced. In the 1870s American Indian house life was investigated by Lewis Henry Morgan, the "father of American anthropology," principally to discover what it revealed of social life. But new interest in native American dwellings has begun to focus on its energy efficient features as well as the symbolism of traditional Indian structures.

This fall, outside of McLoud, Okla., Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Cuppawhe will be among the Kickapoo families moving large cattail roofing mats from the peaked frames of their summer houses to ...