The weeku (sometimes “wetu”) has been used by Indigenous Nations of the Northeast for thousands of years. They are homes that could be as small as a six-person family home to as large as a football field. Darius Coombs (Mashpee Wampanoag) has been constructing these homes for over 30 years for numerous Indigenous communities. Click here for a 78-minute YouTube video of his September 30, 2022 talk sponsored by the Little Compton Historical Society.

Darius (above, left and right) has trained Indigenous folks in the full meaning of a weeku and its usage and has also done numerous presentations on Indigenous history of the New England region where he talks about farming, fishing, hunting and food preparation and storage.

In his presentation, Darius talks about how weekus are constructed using white cedar poles that are flexible and rot-resistant. He points out that weekus appear in the 1605 map that Samuel deChamplain published showing the Patuxet village before infections wiped out the tribes along the coast starting in 1616.

Darius was involved in the construction of weekus that can be found at the Plimoth Patuxet Museum in Plymouth, MA and at the Pequot Museum in Mashantucket, CT.