A Tent Design Inspired by Native Americans

Troops stationed here most likely slept in a Sibley Tent patented in 1856 by Federal Army Colonel Henry Hopkins Sibley. The tents were designed to be portable and comfortable and were modeled after the Comanche buffalo-hide houses called tipis, or teepees, that Sibley had encountered in Texas. Conical tents in various designs, called a tipi, chum, goahti, lavvu, kohte, nentsi, and other names, have been used by Native peoples around the Northern Hemisphere for thousands of years. Their conical shape provides excellent protection from wind, rain, and snow.

Tysons, Virginia · United States