Cawasînoˈkwe is seen again sewing the canoe into its form in [plate 56], figure 2, and is shown applying pitch to the seams in [plate 57], figure 1. Decorations are made with native dyes such as blue clay and red ochre. Nowadays white men’s colors are used and clan marks painted on each end. Ogabeˈgijîg uses a bear picture for his clan mark while Cawasînoˈkwe belongs to the chicken clan. The finished canoe is seen in [plate 57], fig. 2, as they are launching it upon Flambeau Lake. Very few Ojibwe can still make a real birch bark canoe in this manner and the museum considers this series of photographs a valuable one.
The tree is later salvaged for firewood, but the bark may be used right away as soon as obtained. Emergency trays or buckets may be fashioned at once in the woods, or the bark may be stored for future use. The application of heat is all that is necessary to bend it in any shape desired. Although it is highly inflammable, still buckets of birch bark can be used to cook meats. Where water covers the inside of the vessel, it will not burn. The Ojibwe woman saves scraps of birchbark to kindle or light fires with them. A handy torch which will burn all night can be made by rolling birch bark tightly. It is often used by the Ojibwe in lieu of candles.
Nearly any kitchen utensil common to the white man, can be duplicated in birchbark by the Ojibwe. Even funnels for pouring hot lard are easily made. The mokoks or baskets are made for gathering and storing berries, for storing maple sugar, dried fish, meat, or any food. The birchbark keeps the food from spoiling. Some of the mokoks for gathering berries or carrying maple sap, have bark handles like bucket handles, as shown in [plate 49], fig. 1, while larger storage baskets have no handles, but a lid, or sometimes a flap of the basket itself is used to close it tightly. All sorts of drying trays are made from birch bark. Shallow trays for winnowing wild rice are also made of it.
Sheets of bark are sewed together with basswood string and made into birchbark rolls, used as waterproof roofing for wigwams, as shown in [plate 46], fig. 2. Sticks tied across the end of the roll keep it from splitting and tearing. A fine opportunity to see these bark rolls was afforded during the Court of Neptune pageant in 1926 on the lake front in Milwaukee, when the writer brought down over a hundred Ojibwe Indians from Lac Court Oreilles, Wisconsin, and set up a model old time village of eleven wigwams. There they lived for a week demonstrating their former methods of life, jerking meats over open fires, as shown in [plate 47], fig. 2, and practicing their native arts and crafts.
Low Birch (Betula pumila L. var. glandulifera Regel), “bîneˈmîc” [partridge bush]. The Flambeau Ojibwe use the twigs of this dwarf birch for the ribs of baskets, where sweet grass is the weaving material.
Hazelnut (Corylus americana Walt.), “mûkwoˈbagaˈnak”.[145] A crooked stick with an enlarged base such as can often be obtained in a hazel bush makes the favorite drum stick for the Flambeau Ojibwe. The finer twigs are bound into a bundle, with the tips sheared, to serve as a primitive broom or brush to be used on the bare ground in the wigwam. The finer twigs may also be used as ribs in making woven baskets for collecting or storing acorns or hard fruits.
CAPRIFOLIACEAE (HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY)
Downy Arrow-wood (Viburnum pubescens [Ait.] Pursh), “wabanweˈak” [east stick]. The bark of this species furnished one of the ingredients of a Pillager Ojibwe kinnikinnik, which the writer smoked and pronounces good.
COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY)
Woolly Yarrow (Achillea lanulosa Nutt.), “wabîgwon” [white flower]. The flower heads are used in the kinnikinnik mixture for smoking by the Flambeau Ojibwe. This mixture, is not however smoked for pleasure, but in medicine lodge ceremonies for ceremonial purposes.