28 The Ottawa Naturalist [May 



One of the most interesting of these uses of native raw materials 

 is in connection with textiles and vegetable fibres for weaving, sewing 

 or tying. It is not likely that any discoveries of great economic value 

 will be made, but it would be interesting to note to what extent some 

 aboriginal materials could be utilized in modern arts and handicrafts. 



Several of our eastern woodland tribes, including the Ojibwa and 

 the Iroquois, make, or formerly made, excellent bags for various pur- 

 poses of basswood inner bark or bast. The Ojibwa of northern 

 Ontario still manufacture these in a number of very pleasing colours 

 and designs. The material is soft, flexible, possesses good wearing 

 qualities and is easily prepared. 



The first step in the process of bag-making is to pull off the bark 

 from young trees in long strips, and then to detach the bast from the 

 more brittle outer bark. The bast is then folded into small bundles 

 and boiled for a while with wood ashes, or until it can be easily rubbed 

 or shredded into a fine, soft material. A portion of this is twisted into 

 a rather firm cord and used as the warp in an open twined weave, the 

 woof consisting of larger rolls or wisps of the untwisted fibres, some of 

 which are dyed and in this way worked into various patterns. 



Other very good fibres, which are prepared and used in much the 

 same way, are obtained from the outer portion of the stems of the 

 swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) , also from various species of 

 dogbane (Apocynum), and from the hemp nettle. These are taken 

 in the fall or late summer when the stems are mature. Slippery elm 

 bast is also employed. 



An aboriginal tying material found quite plentifully around 

 Ottawa is the bast of the leatherwood or moosewood (Dirca palustris). 

 Farmers, in fact, sometimes use this for tying grain bags. It was 

 formerly sometimes used by the Iroquois for the bow-string in the bow- 

 drill method of firemaking by friction. 



Swamp milkweed fibre is frequently used by the same tribe for 

 pulling teeth. Its use is said to prevent the decay of those remaining. 



Strings for bows in hunting and warfare were often made of the 

 bark of young hickories twisted. 



The Ojibwa around Lake Nipigon use the bark of one of the 

 willows (Salix humilis) for attaching the anchor-stones and floats to 

 nets. 



A number of tribes use the long slender roots of the spruce, which 

 are found just under the surface, for sewing canoes and in the making 

 of birchbark utensils of various kinds. The roots are split so that 

 each strip retains part of the smooth, rounded, outer surface; the 

 heart, or inner portion being discarded. The strips are soaked or kept 

 moist in sewing, holes being punched in the birchbark with an awl 

 for the insertion of the sharpened end of the strand of root. The 

 combination of the birchbark and the spruce root sewing or binding 



