halves by scraping. Large root strands quartered 

 and prepared in the same manner, or the cores of 

 these, were sometimes used in heavy sewing or 

 lashing at the gunwale or in the ends of a canoe. 



As noted previously, root thongs were used well 

 water-soaked or quite green, for they became very 

 stiff and rather brittle as they dried out. Once in 

 place, however, the drying did not seem to destroy 

 their strength. Rawhide was also used for such 

 sewing by some tribes. 



The sewing was done by Indian women, if their 

 help was available, and the forms of stitching used 

 in canoe building varied greatly. The root sewing at 

 the ends of the canoes ranged from a simple over-and- 

 over spiral form to elaborate and decorative styles. 

 Long-and-short stitching in a sequence that usually 

 followed some formal pattern was widely used. 

 Among the patterns were such arrangements as one 

 long, four short, and one long; or two longs, two or 

 three shorts, and two longs; or one short, five of 

 progressively increasing length, and then one short; or 

 six progressively longer followed by six progressively 

 shorter. Cross-stitching, employing the two ends of 

 the sewing root as in the lacing of a shoe was also 

 common. Sometimes this was combined with a 

 straight-across double-strand pass to join the ends of 

 the X. The harness stitch, in which both ends of the 

 sewing root were passed in opposite directions through 

 the same holes, was often used, as was the 2-thong 

 in-and-out lacing from each side used in northwestern 

 canoes having plank stem-pieces. 



If the root strand was too short to complete a seam, 

 instead of being spliced or knotted the end was tucked 

 back under the last turns or stitches, on the inside of the 

 bark cover. In starting, the tail was placed under the 

 first turn of the stitch, so that it could not be pulled 

 through. To finish sewing with double-ended strands, 

 as in the harness stitch, both ends were tucked under 

 the last turn or two. 



Commonly two or more turns were taken through 

 a single hole in the bark; this might be done to clear 

 some obstruction such as a frame head at the gunwale, 

 or to provide a stronger stitch, or turn, as in the 

 harness stitch and others, or to allow for greater 

 spacing between awl holes in the bark. (Since the 

 awl blade was tapered, the size of the hole it made in 

 the bark could be regulated by the depth of penetra- 

 tion of the blade as it was turned in the hole.) 



The length of stitches varied with the need for 

 strength and watertightness. Long stitches were 

 about 1 inch, short stitches from about % to % inch in 



OocfS/(T - /ho/?^ 



Figure 36 



//7- a/?a'- oa/- 



Sewing: two common styles of root stitching 

 used in bark canoes. 



length. The run of the grain, of course, was a consid- 

 eration in the length of stitch used. 



The piecing of the side panels was done with a 

 great variety of sewing styles, according to strength 

 requirements. The strain put upon the bark in 

 molding it by rib pressure was greater in the mid- 

 length than in the ends; and the sewing differed 

 accordingly. The over-and-over spiral, with a batten 

 under the sewing, was used for sewing in the mid- 

 length, as was back-stitching, a variety of basting 

 stitch in which a new pass is started about half way 

 between stitches, thus forming overlapped passes or 

 turns. Back-stitching was usually done in a direction 

 slightly diagonal to the line of sewing, so as to cross 

 the grain of the bark at an angle with each pass. 

 The double-thong in-and-out stitch, in which each 

 thong goes through the same hole from opposite 

 sides, was frequently used. The simple, spiral over- 

 and-over stitch was used in sewing panels in the ends 

 of canoes, as was the simple, in-and-out basting stitch 

 using either a single or double strand. 



When the sides were pieced out edge-to-edge, the 

 sewing was usually done spirally, over and over a 

 narrow, thin batten placed outside the bark cover. 

 This batten might be either a thin split sapling or, 

 more commonly, a split and thinned piece of root. 

 If the pieced-out sides were lapped, then the harness 

 stitch was commonly used. The lap might be some 

 inches wide to decrease the danger of splitting while 

 the bark was being punched with the awl, afterward 

 the surplus was cut away leaving about a half inch of 

 overlap. On rare occasions the strength of a lapped- 

 edge seam was increarod by the use of a parallel row 

 of stitching. 



43 



