The rules which govern the building of a regular hogán or winter house,
although clearly defined and closely adhered to, do not apply to the
summer huts or shelters. These outnumber the former and are found
everywhere on the reservation, but they are most abundant in the
mountain regions and in those places where horticultural operations
can be carried on.

These structures are of all kinds and of all degrees of finish, although
certain well-defined types, ancient in their origin, are still closely
adhered to when the conditions permit. But under other circumstances
the rudest and most primitive shelters are constructed, some of them
certainly not so high in the scale of construction as an ordinary bird’s
nest. There is a certain interest that attaches to these rude attempts,
as they exhibit the working of the human mind practically untrammeled
by precedent.

Perhaps the most primitive and simple shelter the Navaho builds is a
circle or part-circle of green boughs, generally pine or cedar. Half an
hour of work by two men with axes is all that is required to erect one
of these. A site having been selected, a tree is felled on the windward
side, and the branches trimmed from it are piled up to a height of
4 or 5 feet on three sides of a circle 15 or 20 feet in diameter. A fire
is built in the center and the natives dispose themselves around it.
Blankets are thrown over outstanding branches here and there, affording
an abundance of shade in the hot summer days when even a little shade
is agreeable. Rude as this shelter is, it is regarded by the Navaho as
sufficient when no better is available. During the recent construction
of some irrigating ditches on the reservation, when from 50 to 100 men
were employed at one time, this form of shelter was the only one used,