Ojibwe people built dome-shaped wigwams of poles lashed together and covered them with woven mats and bark.

In summer, groups of people lived together in summer villages of several wigwams, using these as a base of operations. Each village group ranged over a radius of at least fifty miles for hunting, fishing, and gathering other resources.

In winter, these groups were more dispersed, moving out into the extensive hunting territories and living in groups of one or two families. While hunting away from the wigwam or village, men sometimes built peaked lodges consisting of an A-frame, ridgepole, and other poles to form a lean-to which was covered with bark. Rectangular structures covered with bark-similar to those used as summer houses by tribes farther south-were sometimes built in the sugarbush.