156 



BOARD OF INDIAN COMMISSIONERS BOATS 



[b. a. e. 



Board of Indian Commissioners. See 



United States Board of Indian Commission- 

 ers. 



Boat Harbor. A Micmac village near 

 Picton, Nova Scotia. — Can. Ind. Aff. 

 Rep. 1880, 46, 1881. 



Boats. Under this general term are 

 included various kinds of water craft used 

 throughout North America wherever 

 waters favored. The Eskimo have two 

 forms — the man's boat {hiiaJ:, Russian 

 baid((rla) and the woman's boat [urnial-, 

 Russian baidarra) — made by stretching 

 a covering of seal hide over a framework 

 of whale ribs or of driftwood. The 



ESKIMO KAIAK. (mURDOCh) 



umiak, or woman's boat, is an open scow 

 with little modification of bow and stern, 

 propelled with large oars and a sail made 

 of intestines; but the man's boat is one 

 of the most effective devices for water 

 travel in the world. The man sits in a 

 small hatch, and, in the lighter forms, 

 when his water-tight jacket is lashed to 

 the gunwale he is practically shut in, so 

 that though the water may pass entirely 

 over him, scarcely a drop enters the craft. 

 He moves himself through the water by 



ESKIMO UMIAK. (tURNEr) 



means of a paddle, in most cases a double 

 one. 



Immediately in touch with the skin- 

 boat countries all around the Arctic, from 

 Labrador to Kodiak in Alaska and south- 

 ward to the line of the white birch, east- 

 ward of the Rocky mts. , and including the 

 countrj' of the great lakes, existed the 

 birch-bark canoe. With framework of 

 light spruce wood, the covering or sheath- 

 ing of bits of tough bark sewed together 



HUDSON BAY BIRCH-BARK CANOE. (tURNEr) 



and made water-tight by means of melted 

 pitch, these boats are interesting subjects 

 of study, as the exigencies of travel and 

 portage, the quality of the material, and 

 traditional ideas produce different forms 



in different areas. Near the mouth of the 

 Yukon, where the water is sometimes tur- 

 bulent, the canoe is pointed at both ends 

 and partly decked over. On the e. side of 



IPPEWA DUGOUT. ( HOFFMAN) 



Canada the bow and the stern of the 

 canoe are greatly rounded up. A curious 

 form has been reported by travelers 

 among the Eeothuk of Newfoundland. 

 On the Kootenai, and all over the pla- 

 teaus of British Columbia and n. Wash- 

 ington, the Asiatic form, monitor-shaped, 

 pointed at either end under the water, is 

 made from pine bark instead of birch 

 bark. 



From the n. boundary of the United 

 States, at least from the streams empty- 



TLINGIT DUGOUT WITH PAINTED DESIGNS. 



(swan) 



ing into the St Lawrence southward 

 along the Atlantic slope, dugout canoes, 

 or pirogues, were the instruments of navi- 

 gation. On the Missouri r. and elsewhere 

 a small tub-shaped craft of willow frame 

 t'overed with rawhide, with no division 

 of bow or stern, locally known as the bull- 

 boat, was used by Sioux, Mandan, An- 

 kara, and Hidatsa women for carrying 

 their goods down or across the rivers. It 

 was .so light that when one was emptied a 



BALSA OF TULE GRASS, PYRAMID LAKE, NEVADA. (, POW 



woman could take it on her back and make 

 her way across the land. On the w. coast, 

 from Mt St Elias southward to Eel r. , Cal. , 

 fxcellent dugout canoes were made from 

 giant cedar and other light woods, some 

 of them nearly 100 ft. long. The multi- 

 tude of islands off the n. coast rendered 

 it possible for the natives to pa.ss from 

 one to the other, and thus they were in- 

 duced to invent seagoing canoes of tine 

 quality. Here also from tribe to tribe 

 the forms differ somewhat as to the shape 

 of the bow and stern and the ornamenta- 

 tion. On the California coast and navi- 



