The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America

by Tappan Adney; Howard Irving Chapelle

It appears to have been a rather common practice, after all the ribs had been driven into place, to allow the canoe to stand a few days and then again to set the frames (where unevenness appears in the topsides) with driving batten and maul, the bark cover and the root sewing or lashings having been again thoroughly wetted.

The headboards are now to be made. These are shaped in the form of an elongate-oval from a wide splint of white cedar about 4 inches wide at midlength and ¼ inch thick. The narrow end is first cut off square or nearly so; the bottom end is notched to fit in the notch in the heel of the stem-piece and the top has a small tenon at the centerline that will be fitted into a hole drilled or gouged in the underside of the inner gunwales where they join at the ends. The length of the headboards in the canoe being built is 15¾ inches over all, and when they have been made for each end, they are checked as to width and height to see that they can be fitted. Next, the extreme ends of the canoe between the stem and the headboards are stuffed with dry cedar shavings or dry moss so that the sides stand firm on each side of the bow outboard of the ends of the sheathing, which ends rather unevenly, just outboard of where the headboards will stand. This completed, the headboards are forced into position by first stepping the heel notch in the stem-piece notch and then bending the board by placing one hand against its middle and pulling the top toward the worker. This shortens the height of the board enough so the tenon projecting on its head can be sprung into the small hole under the inner gunwales, where it becomes rigidly fixed. Its sprung shape pushes up the gunwales and makes the side bark of the ends very taut and smooth, while supporting the gunwale ends.

Two thin strips about 19 feet long are next split out of white cedar to form the gunwale caps; these are ¼ to ⅜ inch thick, and taper each way from about 2 inches wide in the middle to 1 inch wide at the ends. These are laid along the top of the inner gunwales and fastened down with pegs placed clear of the gunwale lashings. The ends of the strips are usually secured by two or three small lashings; the caps thus formed often stop short of the ends of the inner gunwale members. If the caps are carried right out to the stems, as was the practice of some Malecite builders, the lashings of the outwale are not turned in until after the caps are in place, in which case the bark deck pieces, or flaps, are put in just before the final lashing is made.

Figure 45

Sixth Stage of Canoe Construction: canoe has been righted and placed on a grassy or sandy spot. In this stage splints for sheathing (upper left) are fixed in place and held by temporary ribs (lower right) under the gunwales. The bark cover has been completely sewn and the shape of the canoe is set by the temporary ribs. (Sketch by Adney.)

Next, the canoe is turned upside-down and all seams are gummed smoothly on the outside. The ends, from the beginning of the seam to above the waterline, may be heavily gummed and then covered with a narrow strip of thin bark, heavily enough smeared with gum to cause it to adhere over the seam. In more recent times a piece of gummed cloth was used here. Above this protective strip, the end seams are filled with gum so that the outside can be smoothed off flush on the face of the cutwater between the stitches. All seams in the side and bottom are gummed smooth and any holes or patches remaining to be gummed are taken care of in this final inspection.

If the canoe is to be decorated (not many types were) the outside of the bark is moistened and the rough, reddish winter bark, or inner rind, is scraped away, leaving only enough to form the desired decorations. When paints of various colors could be obtained, these were also employed, but the use of the inner rind was apparently the older and more common method of decorating.

The paddles are made from splints of spruce or maple, ash, white cedar, or larch. Two forms of blade were used by the Malecite. The older form is long and narrow, with the blade wide near the top and the taper straight along each edge to a narrow, rounded point. Above the greatest width, the blade tapers almost straight along the edge, coming into an oval handle very quickly. At the head, the handle is widened and it ends squared off, but the taper toward the handle is straight, not flared as in modern canoe paddles; there is no swelling. Paddles of a shape similar to this, some without a wide handle, were used by other eastern Indians. The more recent form of Malecite paddle has a long leaf-shaped, or beaver-tail, blade, much like that of the modern canoe paddle, except that it ends in a dull point; the handle is as in the old form but the head is swelled to form the upper grip. The face of the blade, in both old and new form, has a noticeable ridge down the centerline.