Tefes de Boule 



The Tetes de Boule, particularly the western bands, 

 were skilled canoe builders and had long been em- 

 ployed by the Hudson's Bay Company in the con- 

 struction of large fur-trade canoes. Apparently made 

 up of bands of Indians inhabiting lower Quebec, 

 in the basin of the St. Maurice River and on the 

 Height of Land, these bands had come down to the 

 lower Ottawa River to trade with the local Algonkin 

 tribe there in early times. They were known to the 

 Algonkins, who had had some contact with civili- 

 zation, as "wild Indians." They also came into 

 close trading relations with the French colonists, as 

 the Ottawa River was the early French canoe route 

 between Montreal and Lake Superior. Because they 

 cut their hair short, unlike the other Indians, these 

 northern bands were nicknamed "Bull Heads," or 

 "Round Heads," by the French traders, and the 

 tribesmen soon came to accept this rather than their 

 own designation of "White Fish People" as the tribal 

 name. In more recent times, the name has been 

 applied to groups of Indians living in western Quebec 

 Province, near Lake Barriere and Grand Lake Vic- 

 toria, but these do not consider themselves related 

 to the St. Maurice bands. 



It seems apparent that the canoe models of all 

 these groups had been altered as a result of long 

 contact with other tribal groups. Although the St. 

 Maurice and the western bands were apparently not 

 of the same tribal stock, their relations with the 

 Algonkin may have brought about the use of a 

 standard model by all. 



The Tetes de Boule lived in an area where very 

 superior materials for birch-bark canoe construction 

 were plentiful. This, with the need for canoes im- 

 posed by the numerous waterways and the demand 

 for canoes from white traders, made many of the 

 tribesmen expert builders. Their small canoes, rang- 

 ing from the 8- to 12-foot hunter's canoes to the 14- to 

 16-foot family canoes, were very similar in profile 

 to the canoes of the St. Francis Abnaki. The Tetes 

 de Boule canoes, however, were commonly narrower 

 on the bottom, and in their construction a building 

 frame was always used. The Tetes de Boule model 

 was straight along the bottom for better than half 

 the length and then rose rather quickly toward the 

 ends. Similarly, the sheer was moderate amidships 

 and increased toward the ends. The stems showed 



FlDDLEHEAD OF SCRAPED Bark On bow and 

 stern of a Montagnais birch-bark canoe at 

 Seven Islands, Que., 1915. 



Disk of Colored Porcupine Quills dec- 

 orating canoe found at Namaquagon, Que., 

 1898. Within the 4-inch disk may have been 

 an 8-pointed star. 



a chin and were much peaked at the gunwale ends. 

 Most commonly the midsection had a flat bottom 

 athwartships and a well-rounded bilge, giving the 

 topsides, near the gunwale, a very slight outward 

 flare. Some Tetes de Boule canoes had rather V- 

 section ends in which the endmost rib was "broken" 

 at the centerline. As a result the lines were sharp 

 and the canoes paddled very easily. 



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