Wigwams

Wigwams were made of sheets of birch bark and insulated with many woven reed mats, all of which was held in place by log bracers. In Winter they were covered with a thick layer of dirt and sod, and braced up around the sides and over the roof, after the danger of late Fall rains have passed. The dome construction might be of bent willow, or flexible, tough dogwood, often called "red willow" and considered one of the 4 Anishinaabe sacred plants. They were built anew each season at each camping place, with fresh birchbark and new matting insulation.

Wigwams were small or large, depending on use, or number of families. Some wigwams were as much as thirty feet long. There was a doorway at either ende of the large wigwams, and a fireplace down the middle which helped to keep the soil dry and ventilated. In Summer, two or three fires were used for cooking. Only one fire was used in Winter, but each family had its own section.

The fireplaces were curved or blocked up with green wood so the fire didn't catch the dry wood or hay. Timber was built up so that it would not let the ashes out, or so that it would not let the spark into the bed area or living part of the wigwam. The green wood was put so that it was all curled up around the fireplace Most cooking was done outside, though there was a very small heating fire centrally within. Wigwams were for sleeping and waiting out the storms, and for sheltering the boiling kettles during Spring maple sugaring.

Canoes

Canoes have been around for hundreds, if not thousands of years, and there are still a few builders practicing the age-old craft and creating these wonderful canoes. The Ojibwe travelled to their spring camps in these sturdy, lightweight boats. In his Ethnographic Biography Ojibwe Medicine Man Paul Peter Buffalo reminisces on travelling with his parents to their seasonal camps in birchbark canoes.

"When we moved from season to season we most generally travelled in bunches and went by small river canoes made out of birch bark. We moved our camps around in groups because the seasons were too short for everybody to be working just for himself. That bunch was called ay-oo-kwii-no-waád or mú-zi-qa-i-ay-go-si-wád, and would be the relatives in a group, maybe five or six canoes full of relatives. Sometimes there would be only three or four canoes travelling together, with two and three in a canoe. Once in a while there would be seven or eight canoes. Most generally there would be fifteen or twenty people in a group, but many of them weren't full-grown. They were mostly children, and were closely related through the men."

Native North Americans, particularly the Ojibwe, are responsible for creating the more well-known version of the canoe - a frame of wooden ribs covered with the lightweight bark of birch trees, and sometimes elm or cedar trees. These canoes have remained virtually unchanged in design for thousands of years, and have proved to be ideal for navigating the waterways of North America.

Birchbark was the perfect choice to build canoes because it was smooth, lightweight, waterproof and resilient. The birch tree was found in almost every area of Canada, except the western subarctic region, where spruce bark had to fill in as a substitute. The joints of the canoes were held together by the root of the white pine and then made waterproof by applying hot pine or spruce resin.

The Ojibwe bark of the birch tree is harvested in the early Spring. Paul Peter Buffao talks about a canoe specialist he knew who "would make whatever you requested. You told him how long you wanted the keel -- there was no keel, but there was a round bottom -- and he'd make it that length. If they didn't have cedar strips already prepared and rolled up they went out and split cedar and stripped it. They always had the birch bark on hand if they were planning on making a canoe, because they had to get that in the early spring."

Early Canadian explorers were also quite taken by the exquisite Native craftsmanship of birchbark canoes. In his Letters and Notes of the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indian (1841), George Catlin's gives an almost poetic descrpition of the birchbark canoe:

"The bark canoe of the Chippeways [Ojibwe] is, perhaps, the most beautiful and light model of all the water crafts that were ever invented. They are generally made complete with the rind of one birch tree, and so ingeniously shaped and sewed together, with roots Of the tamarack ... that they are water-tight, and ride upon the water, as light as a cork. They gracefully lean and dodge about, under the skilful [sic] balance of an Indian ... but like everything wild, are timid and treacherous under the guidance of [a] white man; and, if he be not an equilibrist, he is sure to get two or three times soused, in his first endeavors at familiar acquaintance with them."

"The canvas covered cedar canoe evolved directly from the birch-bark canoes used extensively by the Indians of the Northeast. These bark shells, reinforced with unfastened planking and frames, represent incredible understanding of native materials and remarkable ingenuity in applying a few simple hand tools to a major project. The well-built birch-barks were delightful to perceive, easy to handle, and incredibly resilient. They served nearly all the requirements of the nomadic Indians, who seasonally traveled great distances through otherwise impenetrable wilderness along the myriad watercourses."

~ from Building the Maine Guide Canoe by Jerry Stelmok

My Paddle
(A canoeing song)

August is laughing across the sky
Laughing while paddle, canoe and I,
Drift, drift,
Where the hills uplift
On either side of the current swift.

Be strong, O paddle!
Be brave, canoe!
The reckless waves
you must plunge into.
Reel, reel.
On your trembling keel,
But never a fear my craft will feel.

Here are some great sites on how to build a birch bark canoe:

Judy Kavanagh's instructional photo journal of how she built a birchbark canoe:

Joe River's pictorial tour of how to build a birchbark canoe:

The White Oaks Society's construction of the birchbark canoe:

Sqeedunk Kyak's construction of a birchbark canoe:

The Ojibwe Birchbark Canoe

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