J'caU /n r,-^/ 



^Top of 



// /a/^evn tVej/em Crer Canoe 

 ^rr7gf/> oyera// /^'/O, oyer ^i/ntva/fj //'<? " 





Figure 124 



Western Cree 2}>2-Fathom Canoe, Winisk River District, northwest of James 

 Bay. Built of either birch or spruce bark. Inside root stem piece, round 

 gunwales, and much-bellied headboard are typical. 



panels were sewn with in-and-out stitches or back 

 stitches, and the gores with the usual spiral. Gum- 

 ming as a rule was done with clear spruce gum tem- 

 pered by repeated meltings. 



The woodw'ork varied with the building site; some 

 builders could use much cedar, but spruce was most 

 common and the thwarts were usually of birch. When 

 spruce bark was used it was never employed in a single 

 large sheet, since it w-ould have been impossible to 

 mold it to the required shape. Hence the bark cover 

 was pieced up, whether birch or spruce, as an aid in 

 molding the form. Before the spruce bark was sewed 

 and gummed, the edges of the pieces had to be thinned 

 to make a neat joint. Furthermore, in the continuous 

 lashing it was desirable to take two or three turns 

 through one hole in the bark cover to avoid weakening 

 the material with closely spaced holes. 



The western Cree paddles had parallel-sided blades 

 with rounded tips; the handle sometimes had a ball- 

 shaped top grip and sometimes it was pole-ended. 

 The blade did not have a ridge on its face near the 

 handle. Old Cree paddles were often decorated with 

 red pigment bands, markings in the shape of crosses, 

 squares in series, and dots on the blades; the top 

 grip might also be painted. 



Many tribal groups in the western portion of the 

 area have been mentioned — -Teton, Sioux, Assini- 

 boine, Illinois, Huron, and many others — but no 

 record of their canoe forms has survived and the 

 assigning of any model to them is pure sp>eculation. 

 The fur trade alone brought about a fieriod of tribal 

 movement among the Indians long enough to erase 

 many tribal distinctions in canoes and to cause types 

 to move great distances. 



133 



