The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 32
Têtes de Boule fur-trade canoes, like those of the eastern Cree, appear
to have had no relationship to the smaller tribal types, since they
were constructed under supervision of white men. They will be discussed
as a group on page 135.
_Algonkin_
The Algonkins were a tribe residing on the Ottawa River and its
tributaries, in what are now the provinces of Quebec and Ontario,
when the French first met them. They appear to have been a large and
powerful tribe and were apparently competent builders and users of
birch-bark canoes. They were not the same tribe as the Ottawa, who
controlled the Lake Huron end of the canoe route between Montreal and
Lake Superior, by way of the Ottawa River. These Ottawa were related
to the Ojibway tribe and received their name from the French, who gave
the name _Outaouais_, or "Ottaway," to all Indians, except the Hurons,
who came from the west by way of the Ottawa. The Algonkins, because of
their location, were much influenced by the French fur trade. Early
in the 18th century they intermingled with certain Iroquois whom
they allowed to settle with them, near Montreal, at the Lake of Two
Mountains, later Oka. Thence they gradually spread out and lost tribal
unity, until only small groups were left. These lived on the Golden
Lake Algonkin Reserve, Bonshere River, Ontario; at Oka, Quebec; and
elsewhere in western Quebec and eastern Ontario. It is possible that
they were the first to build fur-trade canoes for the French, but
evidence to support such a claim with any certainty is lacking.
Due to intermixing with other tribal groups and to the influence of the
fur trade, in which they were long employed as canoe men and builders,
the Algonkins no longer used a single tribal model of canoe. However,
one of their models, which had high ends resembling those of the large
fur-trade canoe, may have been the tribal type from which the fur-trade
canoe was developed, as will be seen.
[Illustration: Figure 105
OLD ALGONKIN CANOE.]
The high-ended model, the oldest form known to have been used by this
tribe, was narrow-bottomed, with flaring sides. The canoes seen were
built with careful workmanship and in the old manner, without iron
fastenings. They were light and easily paddled, yet would carry a heavy
load. The ends were sharp at the line of flotation. The bottom was
straight to a point near the ends, where it lifted somewhat. The sheer
was rather straight over the middle portion of the canoe, then lifted
slightly until close to the stem, where it rose sharply, becoming
almost perpendicular at the ends of the rail caps. The midsection was
slightly rounded across the bottom, with a well-rounded bilge and a
gently flaring topside. The cross-section became ~V~-shaped close to
the headboards. The most marked feature in the appearance of this
canoe was the profile of the ends. The stem line, beginning with a
slight angle where it joined the bottom, bent outward in a gentle
curve, reaching the perpendicular at a point a little more than half
the height of the end, and from there it tumbled home slightly. In
most of the canoes examined the top of the stem then rounded inboard
in a quick, hard curve, usually almost half a circle, so that the stem
was turned downward as it joined the outwale and gunwale cap. In a
variation of this stem form, the top of the stem was cut off almost
square, forming a straight line that ran parallel to the rise of the
bottom below the stems to the point where it would meet the upturned
outwale and cap. The ends of the outwales and caps were thus 3 or 4
inches inboard of the extremities. This form of stem, particularly when
to top was rounded in a half-circle, approached the basic form of the
ends of the fur-trade canoe.
[Illustration: Figure 106
OLD MODEL, OTTAWA RIVER, ALGONKIN CANOE, combining capacity with easy
paddling qualities.]
All the examples of this form of canoe that were examined were small,
from 14 to a little over 16 feet in length overall, but this is not
proof that larger canoes of this type had not existed earlier.
The later and more common form of Algonkin canoe was the _wabinaki
chiman_. A corruption of Abnaki, _wabinaki_ to the later Algonkin meant
the Malecite as well as the St. Francis Indians. The _wabinaki chiman_
was built in lengths from 12 to 18 feet.
Iroquois living in the Algonkin territory during the period built this
form of canoe as well as the older, high-ended form. The _wabinaki
chiman_ was very much like the St. Francis and Malecite canoes in
appearance, but it was not an exact copy. The Algonkin version was
commonly a narrow-bottom canoe with flaring topsides. There was some
variation in the end profiles; most had the rather high, peaked ends
of the St. Francis canoe. The sheer was rather straight until near the
end, where it rose rapidly to the stem. The stem was rounded and was
faired into the bottom. The top of the stem was often rather straight
and tumbled home slightly, but on some it raked outward, much as did
the stem of some Malecite canoes.
Another form of Algonkin canoe had a low sheer with only a slight lift
toward the ends. In this canoe the stem might have a short, hard curve
at the heel and an upper portion that was quite straight and slightly
tumbled home; or the full height might be well rounded, with a slight
tumble-home near the stem head.
In appearance these canoes were very like the straight-stem Malecite
models. The _wabinaki chiman_ was unquestionably copied from the
eastern canoes that came into popularity among the Algonkin late in
the 19th century, when white sportsmen were demanding canoes of the
St. Francis and Malecite models. However, the Algonkin canoes differed
somewhat from the eastern canoes not only in model but also in methods
of construction.
[Illustration: Figure 107
ALGONKIN AND OJIBWAY STEM-PIECES, models of old forms made by Adney: 1,
2, 3, Ojibway; 4, 5, 6, 7, Algonkin.]
Algonkins used the same construction methods in both their canoe
models, though the framework was not alike in all respects. The
building frame was always used. For a 2-or 2½-fathom canoe this was
made of two strips of cedar, 1½ inches wide and ¾ inch deep, that were
bent edgewise, notched, and tied together at the ends with thongs of
the inner bark of the basswood. These strips were held apart in the
required shape by cedar crosspieces 1 inch wide and 1¾ inches deep,
with the ends notched ¾ inch deep (the depth of the longitudinals) and
the tops well rounded. The crosspieces, five in all, were fastened
to the longitudinals with thongs passing through holes in the ends.
The middle one was about 19½ inches between the inside faces of the
longitudinals, those on each side of it were about 15½ inches long by
similar measure, and the end ones were nearly 6 inches long and were
located a foot or so from the extremities of the longitudinals. The
outside width of the building frame amidships would thus be about 22½
or 23 inches.
[Illustration: Figure 108
LIGHT, FAST 2-FATHOM HUNTING CANOE of the old Algonkin model.]
The building bed was level, with a 6-inch-wide board, some 6 to 8
feet in length, sunk into the earth flush with the surface to insure
a true line for the bottom. The outside stakes were of the usual sort
described in building the Malecite canoe (pp. 40-41). The wedge-shaped
inside stakes, or clamp pieces, were 1½ inches wide, 1 inch thick, and
20 to 25 inches long. The posts for setting the height of the gunwales
at the ends and at the crosspieces were not cut off square at the top
as for the Malecite canoe, but were notched on the outside to take the
gunwales. The heights of the posts were graduated, of course, to form
the required sheer in the gunwales. Like the canoes of the Têtes de
Boule, these of the Algonkin were generally less deep amidships than
the general run of eastern canoes.
Building procedure was as follows: The gunwales were made, bent, and
the ends fastened, but instead of being mortised and fitted with
thwarts, they were spread by temporary crosspieces, or "spalls," made
of a splint, or plank-on-edge, with the lower edge notched in two
places to take the gunwale members. Sometimes the spalls were lashed,
pegged or nailed to the gunwales as well. The stakes were set along the
building frame and these were generally driven sloping, so that their
heads stood outboard of the points. They were then pulled and laid
aside, the building frame was removed, and the bark cover placed on the
building bed. After the building frame has been reset in its original
position and the bark cover turned up along the sides, the stakes
were again driven in their holes. The cover was then pieced out with
side panels as necessary and gored, and longitudinal strips of wood
were set in place by means of the clamp pieces, about as in Malecite
construction. The gunwales were then placed on the posts, which had
been set to the required sheer, and the bark trimmed and fitted to
them. The old method was to lash the bark to the main gunwale members
and to peg on the outwales at intervals of about a foot. In earlier
times most builders inserted along the gunwales an extra reinforcing
strip of bark extending a little below the outwales, as in the St.
Francis canoes, but in the nailed-and-tacked bark canoes built during
the decadent period this was sometimes omitted.
[Illustration: Figure 109
HYBRID ALGONKIN CANOES: Eastern 2½ fathom (above) and northeastern
2-fathom adaptation, with sketches of stems used in each.]
Mortises for the thwarts were next cut and the middle thwart was forced
into place, after the spall there had been removed. This required that
the gunwales be spread slightly, thus increasing the amount of sheer
somewhat. Much judgment was needed to do this correctly. The increase
in the sheer lifted the ends slightly and put some rocker in the bottom
toward the ends. The building frame was lifted out before the rest of
the thwarts were placed; usually it was taken apart in the process. In
forming the ends of the bark cover, the two sides were held together by
a clothespin-like device made of two short, flat sticks lashed together.
Increasing the beam at the gunwales by fitting the thwarts after the
bark cover had been secured to the gunwales not only increased the
sheer but decreased the depth of the canoe amidships as established by
the posts placed under the gunwales in setting up. In order to retain
the required sheer and the desired depth of side, the gunwales had been
sheered up at the ends while being shaped, and had also been treated
with hot water and hogged upward amidships by being staked out to dry
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