Chickee

Chikee or Chickee ("house" in the Creek and Mikasuki languages spoken by the Seminoles and Miccosukees) is a shelter supported by posts, with a raised floor, a thatched roof and open sides.

[1] Similar structures were used by the tribes in south Florida when the Spanish first arrived in the 16th century.

Chickees continue to be used by Native American villages of the Miccosukee in the Everglades.

[3] Some upscale homes in southern Florida feature chickee-inspired buildings as garden or poolside structures.

Similar structures, while not referred to as chickees, are present further north, in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in southern Georgia.

Mother and children at a camp on the Brighton Seminole Indian Reservation , 1949
An Indian camp with a sleep chickee, cooking chickee, and eating chickee
Campers set up tents on a chickee in the Everglades National Park backcountry
Partially built chickee showing thatching process, Big Cypress Indian Reservation .