were parallel-sided and their butts were on top of 

 those of the strakes in the end of the canoe. The 

 sheathing was carried up to within about three inches 

 of the gunwales. The edges were not thinned or 

 feathered as much as were those in the Tetes de Boule 

 canoe. 



Ribs were of cedar from 2 to 3 inches wide, closely 

 spaced and, as usual, without taper until near the ends, 

 which were formed with a narrow chisel edge as in the 

 Tetes-de-Boule canoe. The ribs were first roughly 

 bent, using the building frame as a general guide for 

 length, in order to obtain a somewhat dish-shaped 

 cross section; by this means the width of the bottom 

 could be established to the builder's satsifaction. 



The foregoing description of building methods and 

 construction is based largely upon what is known of 

 the old canoes. In later times the Algonkin copied 

 the eastern canoes and their procedure altered. Not 

 only did they copy extensively the appearance of the 

 St. Francis and Malecite canoes, but they built some 

 canoes much like those of the Tetes de Boule and 

 Ojibway. As a result, it has become difficult to 

 determine what their tribal practices were. 



Their paddles were of the same design as those of 

 the Tetes de Boule, round-pointed and with the blade 

 parallel-sided for most of its length. In portaging, 

 the Algonkin, like many forest Indians, placed a pair 

 of paddles a foot or so apart fore-and-aft over the 

 middle thwart and those on each side of it. These 

 were lashed in place with the ends of a band of hide 

 or the inner bark of a tree like the basswood or elm. 

 This band had been first passed around the ends of the 

 middle thwart, outside the shoulders, and hitched with 

 ends long enough to secure the paddles in place. 

 The shoulder on the middle thwart, a few inches in- 

 side the gunwales, was placed there for just this pur- 

 pose, not as a mere decoration, so that the line could 

 not slide in along the thwart. The canoe was then 

 lifted and turned over by raising one end, or by 

 lifting the whole canoe, and was placed on the car- 

 rier's shoulders, so that the paddle handles were on 

 his shoulders. This brought the middle thwart to 

 just behind the carrier's head. The loop of the bark 

 or hide cord was then placed around the forehead of 

 the carrier in order to keep the canoe from slipping 

 backward. In this fashion one man could carry a 

 canoe for miles if the canoe were small — and all woods, 

 or portage, canoes were small and light. The head- 

 band was known to white men as a "tump line." The 

 Indians used it to carry not only canoes but other 

 heavy or awkward loads (see p. 25). 



There is no certainty about the decorations of 

 Algonkin canoes. Some of the older Indians claimed 

 that the old form of canoe was often decorated with 

 figures formed by scraping the winter bark; usually 

 these depicted the game the owner hunted. Five- 

 pointed stars, fish, and circular forms are known to 

 have been used on the ivabinaki chiman, but it is not 

 known whether these were really Algonkin decora- 

 tions or merely something that had been copied 

 " because it looked good." 



The Algonkin called the large fur canoes nabiska, 

 a name which the Tetes de Boule rendered as rabeska. 

 The word may be a corruption of the Cree word for 

 "strong." At any rate, the name rabeska (sometimes 

 pronounced ra-bas-ha), rather than the French 

 maitre canot, was long applied by white men in the 

 fur trade to the large canoes built in the Ottawa 

 River Valley for their business. In late years the 

 rabeska was a "large" 2}^-fathom high-ended birch- 

 bark canoe, but originally it meant a fur-trade canoe, 

 with the characteristic ends, of from 3 fathoms upward 

 in length. 



Ojibway 



The Indian bands that were called "Outaouais" by 

 the early French do not appear to have been an 

 independent tribe, as has been mentioned, but were 

 largely made up of Ojibway from the Great Lakes 

 region. Perhaps some Tetes de Boule were among 

 these bands before these people were given their nick- 

 name. The Ojibway were a powerful tribal group, 

 made up of far-ranging bands, located all around 

 Lake Superior and to the northwest as far as Lake 

 Winnipeg. They had been in the process of taking 

 over the western end of Lake Superior when the 

 earliest French explorers reached that area; they 

 pushed the Sioux from these forest lands into the 

 plains area, joining with the western Cree in this 

 movement. In the process they seem to have ab- 

 sorbed both some Sioux and some Cree bands. 

 Within the Ojibway tribal group, later called Chip- 

 pewa or Chippeway by the English and Americans, 

 the bands had local names, or were given nicknames, 

 such as the Menominee, Saltreaux, Pillagers, etc. 

 All the important bands within the tribal group were 

 expert canoemen and builders. As far as can be 

 discovered now, the Ojibway added to their own tribal 

 types the models of canoes they encountered in their 



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