The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 34

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America 34

The Algonkin called the large fur canoes _nabiska_, a name which the

Têtes de Boule rendered as _rabeska_. The word may be a corruption of

the Cree word for "strong." At any rate, the name _rabeska_ (sometimes

pronounced ra-bas-ha), rather than the French maître canot, was long

applied by white men in the fur trade to the large canoes built in the

Ottawa River Valley for their business. In late years the rabeska was a

"large" 2½-fathom high-ended birch-bark canoe, but originally it meant

a fur-trade canoe, with the characteristic ends, of from 3 fathoms

upward in length.

 

 

_Ojibway_

 

The Indian bands that were called "_Outaouais_" by the early French do

not appear to have been an independent tribe, as has been mentioned,

but were largely made up of Ojibway from the Great Lakes region.

Perhaps some Têtes de Boule were among these bands before these people

were given their nickname. The Ojibway were a powerful tribal group,

made up of far-ranging bands, located all around Lake Superior and to

the northwest as far as Lake Winnipeg. They had been in the process of

taking over the western end of Lake Superior when the earliest French

explorers reached that area; they pushed the Sioux from these forest

lands into the plains area, joining with the western Cree in this

movement. In the process they seem to have absorbed both some Sioux and

some Cree bands. Within the Ojibway tribal group, later called Chippewa

or Chippeway by the English and Americans, the bands had local names,

or were given nicknames, such as the Menominee, Saltreaux, Pillagers,

etc. All the important bands within the tribal group were expert

canoemen and builders. As far as can be discovered now, the Ojibway

added to their own tribal types the models of canoes they encountered

in their expansion westward. It has long been true that the Ojibway

canoe can be one of at least three forms, depending upon which area of

their territory is being discussed.

 

What is believed to be their old tribal form was a high-ended canoe

in all respects very much like the high-ended Algonkin type. This was

the model used by the Lake Nipigon Ojibway, north of Lake Superior in

Ontario, and by those of the same tribe that once lived near Saginaw,

Michigan, as well as by the Menominee of Wisconsin. At the late period,

from the middle of the 19th century onward, for which information was

available or in which investigation was possible, it appears that the

Ojibway canoes of this high-ended model were built in larger sizes than

contemporary Algonkin canoes of like design. The Ojibway canoes had the

same end structure as these; the early examples found had "chin" in the

end profiles and the tumble-home of the stem was straight, or nearly

so, between the large curve of the forefoot and the very short hard

curve at the stem head. The Ojibway used the same inner stem-piece,

laminated and brought downward abaft the stem-head and then inboard so

that the end fitted into a slot in the headboard a little above its

midheight, at which point was fitted a strut from the headboard to the

back of the stem-piece. The midsection of the Ojibway canoe was very

much like that of the Algonkin; it had a narrow bottom somewhat rounded

athwartships, a well-rounded bilge, and flaring topsides.

 

A small Ojibway portage canoe built in the middle of the 19th century

had an end profile somewhat different from that described above; the

ends were well rounded and had a heavy chin, the stem was carried into

the tumble-home with a full rounded curve all the way to the stem-head,

where the stem piece was bent in and downward very sharply and then

inboard sharply again, so that the end pierced the vertical headboard

at sheer height. The ~S~-curve was so located that the main gunwales

could be lashed to the stem piece at the point where they paralleled it

well below the stem head. In these canoes the Ojibway followed Algonkin

practice in ending the gunwales; there was, therefore, no strut. Where

this canoe was built is uncertain.

 

[Illustration: Figure 114

 

OJIBWAY 2-FATHOM HUNTER'S CANOE, used by the eastern tribal groups.

Probably the ancient model.]

 

[Illustration: Figure 115

 

EXAMPLES OF THE OLD MODEL OJIBWAY 3-FATHOM rice-harvesting canoe

(above), and 2-fathom hunter's canoe, showing the easy paddling form

used.]

 

[Illustration: Figure 116

 

OJIBWAY 3-FATHOM FREIGHT CANOE FROM LAKE TIMAGAMI, apparently a hybrid

based on canvas canoes.]

 

[Illustration: Figure 117

 

THE OLD FORM OF OJIBWAY 2½-FATHOM CANOE of the eastern groups (above),

and the long-nose Cree-Ojibway canoe of the western groups.]

 

At Lake Timagami, north of Georgian Bay in Ontario, the Ojibway used a

low-ended canoe with a remarkably straight tumble-home stem profile;

the forefoot had a very short radius ending at the bottom line with

a knuckle, and the stem-head stood slightly above the gunwale caps.

The stem-piece was made from a thin plank cut to profile; thus no

lamination was necessary. The headboard stood straight, falling

inboard slightly at the head. The midsection was dish-shaped, with

a flat bottom athwartships and strongly flaring sides, the turn of

the bilge being rather abrupt. The ends were strongly ~V~-shaped in

cross-section; a number of the frames there being "broken" at the

centerline of the bottom. A canoe of this design was seen by Adney at

North Bay, Ontario, in 1925, indicating that the design may have been

used in some degree outside the Lake area in later years.

 

The most common Ojibway model used to the northwest and west of Lake

Superior was the so-called "long-nose" form, a rather straight-sheered

canoe. The bottom, near the ends, had a slight rocker, and the sheer

turned up very sharply there, becoming almost perpendicular at the

extremities, yet the ends were not proportionally very high. The

end-profile came up from the bottom very full and round, then fell

sharply inboard in a slightly rounded sweep to join the upturned

sheer well inboard. The midsection was somewhat dish-shaped, but with

well-rounded bilges, so that the flare of the topsides was rounded and

not very apparent to the casual observer. The end section developed

into a tumble-home form, so that a section through the top of the

headboard was rather oval. As a result, these canoes appeared rather

clumsy and unfair in their lines, but this apparently did not harm

their paddling qualities or seaworthiness.

 

[Illustration: Figure 118

 

EASTERN OJIBWAY CANOE, OLD FORM. (_Canadian Pacific Railway photo._)]

 

[Illustration: Figure 119

 

OJIBWAY LONG-NOSE CANOE, RAINY LAKE DISTRICT.]

 

These canoes had narrow headboards that were sharply bellied, somewhat

like those in the crooked canoes, and the belly was sufficient to allow

the heel of the end-board to pass under the bottom sheathing and inside

the bark cover so that two end ribs served to hold the heel in place.

The inside stem-piece was often no more than a light stick or rod bent

to profile, with the head split and brought over the gunwale ends and

down inside, between them. Each half of the split was then lashed to

its neighboring gunwale member. A strip of bark was often placed over

the end of the bark cover and carried down the face of the stem, under

the sewing. The rail caps were then brought up over the tops of the

gunwales and overlapped the top portion of the stem piece. The heel of

the stem-piece was bevelled off on the inboard side so that it could be

wedged under the headboard, inside the bark cover. These headboards,

it should be noted, were no more than a thin, narrow batten, and in

some canoes the head of this batten was lashed under the gunwale ends

instead of coming up between them inboard, as usual. A variation in the

fitting of the stem head was found in a canoe at Long Lake, Ontario;

the stem head, instead of being split, was lashed between the gunwale

ends and thus was brought inboard level with the top of the gunwales.

 

[Illustration: Figure 120

 

SMALL OJIBWAY CANOES OF THE TWO TRIBAL FORMS showing (above) early

trend toward the long nose form, and the final Ojibway-Cree hybrid form

combining flaring sides amidships with tumble-home sections at ends.]

 

The cross section of the main gunwales was round or nearly so in nearly

all long-nose canoes, and often a gunwale cap was fitted. The bark

cover was secured to the gunwales by a continuous lashing, but in at

least one example, from Minnesota, the gunwale wrappings were in groups

over an outwale after the regular fashion to the eastward. The ends of

the thwarts were wedge-or chisel-shaped and instead of being tenoned

were forced into splits in the round gunwales. Many canoes had bark

covers at the gunwale ends and vestiges of the _wulegessis_ were to be

seen.

 

All Ojibway canoes were built with a building frame, the bed being

slightly higher at midlength than at the ends. The stakes were driven

nearly perpendicular, instead of with heads slanted outward. It is

apparent from observed examples that some canoes were built by the same

procedure as the Algonkin, but that not all the long-nose canoes were

built by spreading the gunwales; some were built using the methods of

the St. Francis.

 

[Illustration: Figure 121

 

OJIBWAY CANOE BUILDING, LAC SEUL, 1918.

 

Preparing a building site or bed; building frame in place.

 

Bark set up; bark staked out on building bed.

 

Bark cover being sewn on building bed.

 

(See pp. 170-171 for more photos of Ojibway canoe building.) Gunwales

being lashed.

 

Securing gunwales.

 

Pitch being applied to seams.]

 

[Illustration: Figure 122

 

LONG LAKE OJIBWAY LONG-NOSE CANOE. (_Canadian Geological Survey

photo._)]

 

The lashing in the high-ended Ojibway canoes was about the same as that

in the Algonkin canoes, but in the long-nose type the workmanship was

often coarse. On many of the latter the stems were lashed by use of

small groups in which two turns were taken through each of two closely

spaced holes in the bark and the connection between the groups was