Birch-bark canoes to the westward used battens under the end lashing as well as rather complicated inside stem-pieces. In some parts of the West and Northwest, the ends were formed of boards set up on edge fore-and-aft, the bark being lashed through all, with the boards projecting slightly outboard of the ends of the bark cover to form a cutwater.
To support the inside stem-piece, some form of headboard was usually fitted near each end after the sheathing was in place. These were shaped to the cross-section of the canoe so as to form bulkheads. In some canoes, these miniature bulkheads stood vertical, but in others they were curved somewhat to follow the general curve of the end-profile, and this caused them to be shaped more like a batten than a bulkhead. Bent headboards were sometimes stepped so as to rake outboard. Sometimes the form of the headboard permitted the gunwale members to be lashed to it, and often there was a notch for the main gunwale on each side.
The headboards were sometimes stepped on the unsplit heel of the stem-piece; a notch was made in the bottom of the headboard to allow this. In two types of canoe in which there was no inner stem-piece, the headboards were stepped on short keel pieces, or "frogs," fore-and-aft on the bottom and extending slightly forward of the end of the sheathing to reinforce the forefoot. The purpose of the headboard was to strengthen the stem-piece, and in many cases it was an integral member of the end structure itself and helped to maintain its form. The headboard usually served to support the gunwale ends in some manner, it stretched the bark smooth near the stems, and it secured the ends of the sheathing where support from a rib would have been most difficult to obtain. Many canoes had the space between the headboard and the stem-piece stuffed with shavings, moss, or other dry material to help mold the bark to form beyond the sheathing in the ends. Some tribal groups decorated the headboards.
In a few canoes, the stem-piece was additionally supported by a short, horizontal member stepped in the forward face of the headboard and projecting forward to bear on the after side of the stem-piece. The latter was sometimes bent back onto itself above this member to form a loop around the top of the end-profile, and the gunwale ends or a part of the gunwale structure were secured to it. This complicated bending of the stem-piece, in conjunction with use of a headboard and a brace member, served to stiffen the end structure sufficiently to meet the requirements of service.
Figure 31
Malecite Canoe of the Type Described in This Chapter. This 2½ fathom St. John River canoe represents the last Malecite birch-bark model, and usually was fastened with tacks and nails, rather than with root lashings and pegs as described here.
The use of a bark cover over the gunwale ends has already been mentioned. In some eastern canoes, this was placed under the cap and outwale pieces and extended below the latter in a shallow flap on which the owner's mark or other decoration might appear; the flap was in fact a kind of name board. Such flaps do not appear on the partly decked bark canoes of the Northwest.
This general description of the structure of the bark canoes is sufficient to permit the explanation of the actual construction of a bark canoe to be more readily understood, and it also serves to illustrate the close connection between the method of construction and the formation of the lines, or model, of bark canoes. From the description, too, it can be seen that while the shape of a bark canoe was partially planned during the construction the control of every part of the model could not be maintained with the same degree of precision as in the building of an Eskimo skin boat or an Indian dugout.