T 



-I. HE 



.HE BARK CANOES of the North American Indians, 

 particularly those of birch bark, were among the most 

 highly developed of manually propelled primiti\e 

 watercraft. Built with Stone Age tools from materials 

 available in the areas of their use, their design, size, and 

 appearance were varied so as to create boats suitable to 

 the many and different requirements of their users. 

 The great skill exhibited in their design and construc- 

 tion shows that a long period of development must have 

 taken place before they became known to white men. 



The Indian bark canoes were most efficient water- 

 craft for use in forest travel; they were capable of 

 being propelled easily with a single-bladed paddle. 

 This allowed the paddler, unlike the oarsman, to 

 face the direction of travel, a necessity in obstructed 

 or shoal waters and in fast-moving streams. The 

 canoes, being light, could be carried overland for 

 long distances, even where trails were rough or non- 

 existent. Yet they could carry heavy loads in shallow 

 water and could be repaired in the forest without 

 special tools. 



Bark canoes were designed for various conditions: 

 some for use in rapid streams, some for quiet waters, 

 some for the open waters of lakes, some for use along 

 the coast. Most were intended for portage in over- 

 land transportation as well. They were built in a 

 variety of sizes, from small one-man hunting and 

 fishing canoes to canoes large enough to carry a ton 

 of cargo and a crew, or a war-party, or one or more 

 families moving to new habitations. Some canoes 

 were designed so that they could be u.scd, turned 

 bottom up, for shelter ashore. 



The superior qualities of the bark canoes of North 

 America are indicated by the white man's unqualified 

 adoption of the craft. Almost as soon as he arrived 

 in North America, the white man learned to use the 

 canoe, without alteration, for wilderness travel. 

 Much later, when the original materials used in 

 building were no longer readily available, canvas was 

 substituted for bark, and nails for the lashings and 

 sewing; but as long as manual propulsion was used, 

 the basic models of the bark canoes were retained. 

 Indeed, the models and the proportions used in many 



of these old bark canoes are retained in the canoes 

 used today in the wildernesses of northern Canada 

 and Alaska, and the same styles may be seen in the 

 canoes used for pleasure in the summer resorts of 

 Europe and America. The bark canoe of North 

 America shares with the Eskimo kayak the distinction 

 of being one of the few primitive craft of which the 

 basic models are retained in the boats of civilized man. 



It may seem strange, then, that the literature on 

 .'Kmerican bark canoes is so limited. Many possible 

 explanations for this might be offered. One is that 

 the art of (jark canoe building died early, as the 

 Indians came into contact with the whites, before 

 there was any attempt fully to record Indian culture. 

 The bark canoe is fragile compared to the dugout. 

 The latter might last hundreds of years submerged 

 in a bog, but the bark canoe will not last more than 

 a few decades. It is difficult, in fact, to preserve bark 

 canoes in museums, for as they age and the bark 

 Ijecomes brittle, they are easily damaged in moving 

 and handling. 



.Some small models made by Indians arc preserved, 

 but, like most models made by primitive men, these 

 are not to any scale and do not show with equal 

 accuracy all parts of the canoes they represent. They 

 are, therefore, of value only when full-sized canoes 

 of the same type are available for comparison, but 

 this is too rarely the case with the American Indian 

 bark canoes. Today the builders who might have 

 added to our knowledge are long dead. 



It might be said fairly that those who had the best 

 opportunities to observe, including many whose pro- 

 fession it was to record the culture of primitive man, 

 showed little interest in watercraft and have left us 

 only the most meager descriptions. Even when the 

 watercraft of the primitive man had obviously played 

 a large part in his culture, we rarely find a record com- 

 plete enough to allow the same accuracy of reproduc- 

 tion that obtains, say, for his art, his dress, or his pot- 

 tery. Once lost, the information on primitive water- 

 craft cannot, as a rule, be recovered. 



However, as far as the Ijark canoes of North America 

 are concerned, there was another factor. The student 



