On day 7 Myra and I awoke to another beautiful day.  We decided that we would complete all the sewing, attaching the gunwale caps and final triming but would not pitch the canoe. Grant had offered to complete this last stage after we returned to Winnipeg.

Unpitched canoe 15 feet long

 We all marvelled at the beauty of the canoe now that it has the final shape. It is amazing that in one week we could turn bark and wood into such an amazing watercraft. Clearly there is nothing “Printive” about a birch bark canoe. Grant spoke about how when Europeans arrived to North America they came from a long tradition of boat building. However Europeans found them unsuitable to the navigate the waterways of the boreal forest and quickly adopted the birch bark canoe.

Kevin, Grant and Myra by the our canoe

 Later that Fall on a vacation from the office I took the canoe into northern Manitoba for the inaugral launch into the clear waters of the Canadian Shield. Paddling on the lake I realized this is probably the first time in over a hundred years that anyone has paddled a birch bark canoe in the area. What an amazing gift from relatives from the south. 

Canoe pulled up on shore

First Paddle

On Sunday we started to insert the planking and ribs into the canoe. We started at the end and worked towards the middle. The pairs of ribs are for either end, keeping the shape identical front to back. A finished birch bark canoe can technically be paddled with either end as the stern or bow. We decided to use two different colours of spruce roots at each end to differentiate, the bow we used light spruce roots and the stern we used dark spruce roots. All photos in this blog are the property of Kevin Brownlee (personal collection).

Grant places the cedar planking in the canoe before the ribs are added

 

Grant hammers in a rib with an iron wood mallet

Starting to add the ribs on the other side. Notice half of the ribs are already in place.

Bending and installing the last rib

 

 

 

The last rib is in the very middle and the wood was drenched with hot water to help the wood bend. It looks like the rib should break and then it slips into place.

 

 

 

 

Bending the out wales with hot water.

 

 

 

Stiching up the out wales

Canoe ribs being bent into shape Grant and Myra

Assembling the wood frame

Splitting cedar stem piece

Over the course of the next 6 days all efforts were on completing the Birch Bark canoe. Each morning I would get up at 6:00 and review my notes and look at the canoe in order to see if they were complete. Once I updated my notes and had coffee and breakfast work would start on the canoe.

Weighing down the bark

All photographs from this post are the property of Kevin Brownlee (personal collection).

Since Myra and I were both beginners we were given the task of sewing all the seams together with the 500 feet of finished spruce roots. While we worked on that, Grant focused his attention on the wooden structure of the canoe including the inwales, outwales, gunwale caps, thwarts, ribs, planking, headboard and stem pieces.

Sewing with spruce roots

Myra Sewing the gunwales

Jim Jones Senior helps to sewi the gunwales

The inwales, outwales and gunwales caps were split from a 22 foot long cedar pole. The 40 ribs were made from 3 – 5 foot sections of large cedar logs (60 inches in diameter). Five thwarts needed for the canoe were made Black Ash. Myra and I also made over 80 iron wood pegs for pining the inwale, outwale and gunwale caps together.

The canoe started as flat sheets of birch bark and each day began to the canoe looked more and more like a real canoe. By the end of day 5 the canoe was completely sewn and ready for the ribs and planking.

I woke up at 6:00 AM to get a good start on the day. Grant was already up and we decided to get out to the spruce bog early to gather roots. We needed to gather 250 feet of roots to make 500 feet of finished split roots. The estimate was 5 feet of roots for each rib, 40 ribs require 200 feet and the seams to be sewn would require the other 50 feet.

The bog was relatively dry and the moss was like a thick mattress over the spruce roots. Digging spruce roots does not hurt the trees.  The bog where we gathered the roots has been used by Grant for many years and the trees are very healthy. After a few hours we gathered 250 feet of roots and we headed back to Grant and Christy’s place to prepare the roots.

All photographs from this entry are the property of Kevin Brownlee (personal collection) 

Grant Digging roots

Grant Jim and Kevin Rolling up 250 feet of roots

Grant with full roll of roots 250 feet in length

 The roots were boiled to speed up the peeling process, once they boiled for an hour Myra and I began to peal and split the roots.

Kevin with pot of boiling spruce roots

 Kevin and Myra pealing spruce roots

Jim and Grant made the building frame and started to prepare the bark. Only two sheets of birch bark were used to make the canoe. Once the sheets were cut to match each other and the building frame was placed over top weighted down with cinder blocks. The bark was cut from the outer edge to the building frame (called gores) to allow the bark to form fit the canoe shape. The bark was then folded up and held in place by wooden stakes.

Grant with canoe building frame on top of bark

Pealed and split spruce roots ready for sewing

We finished pealing the roots and splitting them before the end of the day and Grant started making the inner gunwales, outer gunwales and gunwale caps. While we made great progress on the canoe in one day of work it was far from looking like a canoe.

The best way to understand any skill or expertise is by trying it out. Experimental archaeology attempts to replicate past activities to improve our understanding and interpretation of archaeological material. My interest in experimental archaeology is broad since I am interested in all aspects of past technology, working stone, clay, bone, antler, wood, bark and hides.

In some cases I am replicating tools that I have recovered or items from the collection in other cases I am learning from Elders and knowledgeable community members on traditional activities. I have learned how to tan hides and make birch bark baskets from the First Nation community members. In other cases I have learned on my own how to make bone and antler tools. Here are a few pictures when I used a replica antler pick (not original) to see if it would chop through lake ice at -30.

Experimental Archaeology using antler pick

Experimental Archaeology Chopping hole in ice

Results of chopping hole in lake ice with tool

This past August my wife Myra and I were taught how to make a birch bark canoe by Jim Jones Jr. and Grant Goltz who are colleagues of ours in Minnesota. Jim Jones Jr. is an Ojibway Archaeologist and member of the Leech Lake Band working for the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council. Grant Goltz is a consulting archaeologist and is a master of many skills and makes traditional First Nation pottery, birch bark canoes, kayaks, furniture and guitars, to name a few. Grant started making canoes in 1995 when he and his wife Christy taught an archaeology field school. The students learned how to make a canoe during the 6 weeks of the field school and everyone involved gained a better appreciation of this ancient craft. Since then he has made 20 – 30 birch bark canoes. The most famous was 27.5 feet long and was paddled from Portland Oregon to York Factory Manitoba.

Canoes at Grant and Christy home

We began on a warm afternoon on the property of Grant Goltz and Christy Cain. We examined many books on the subject of birch bark canoes in order to decide what kind or shape to make. None of the books that Grant had provided good examples of northern Boreal Forest Cree canoe so we decided to make one that I found esthetically pleasing. It was called an early Algonquian Canoe “from the Ottawa River valley”. We made a few adjustments to the plan making a 15 foot canoe, 38 inches wide at the middle thwart. We also raised the height of the canoe at both the stern and bow and flattened the bottom somewhat following images of model canoes.  

Planning the Canoe

Sketch of canoe

Sketch of canoe design

As we headed for bed that night Grant told Myra and I to get a good night sleep as we were going to be up early the next morning to gather spruce roots before the heat of the mid day.

Stone Aaze from TMM collection

I have long marveled at the beautiful stone woodworking tools that are in the archaeology collection at The Manitoba Museum and wondered what they were used for. It may seem like an odd question as these tools were obviously used for working wood. I wonder what past peoples made with these tools. Since understanding how all tools were used in the past is important for archaeologists, we are often searching for the invisible or the material culture that does not preserve. This is a major issue for archaeologists as we can only recover and study the durable material culture (stone, ceramic, bone). Non-durable items are rarely recovered and include items made from wood, bark and hide. Although we can only study the durable material we must keep in mind the non-durable items that were used in the past.

Stone adze from TMM collection

Stone adze from TMM collection

The question remains… what were they making with these stone woodworking tools? Of course wood was very important to past people for constructing lodges; hide stretching frames and smoking racks. We also assume that finer items were carved including ladles, spoons, and bowls. Larger items were also manufactured including toboggans, snow shoe frames, paddles and canoes. By being aware of the non-durable materials and how durable items were used in the making of such items you can better appreciate the past and better interpret archaeological material.

Moose hide on rack (TMM)

John B. Moose making paddle (TMM)

One of many sophisticated technologies developed by First Nation people was the birch bark canoe. How long ago these were developed is unknown but populating the dense boreal forest of northern Manitoba 7,000 years ago would have been impossible without some form of water transportation.

Birch bark canoes were encountered by Europeans at contact and were far superior to any European water craft. Europeans quickly abandoned their boats in favour of First Nation made bark canoes, which were light and easily navigated the rivers and lakes of the interior.

Contemporary birch bark canoe makers use a variety of tools including metal awls, axes, wooden wedges, froes, metal chisels, draw knives, and crooked knives. In the past bone awls, stone, antler and wood wedges, stone axes and adzes, bone chisels, and beaver incisors were used. We have found stone axes and adzes (woodworking tools), stone and antler wedges, bone awls, bone chisels at ancient camp sites and these may have been used in the manufacture of birch bark canoes. I had the good fortune this August to have the opportunity to participate in the making of a birch bark canoe. Although it was made during my vacation it gave me a better appreciation of this technology and how to interpret the archaeological collections at The Manitoba Museum.

Antler pick and wedge (TMM)

Moose bone awl drawing (TMM)

Stay tuned for my next blog that documents my experience in making and using a birch bark canoe.

I recently returned from the community of Cross Lake with a great experience I want to share.

We experimented with cooking a meal inside a replica clay pot over a campfire. It wasn’t until we were cooking that we realized that it has probably been over 300 years since a meal was cooked inside a clay pot in northern Manitoba.

The pot was made by Grant Goltz (Minnesota) copying one from Minnesota that is over 900 years old. Grant generously loaned the pot so we could cook a meal.

You may ask “how is this relevant to archaeology?”. Broken pot sherds are often found at ancient camp sites and we have thousands in the collection in The Manitoba Museum. We were doing experimental archaeology, which is basically trying to see how things were done in the past through experimentation.

In this case we cooked up a meal of moose meat and wild rice. Before we began I worried that the pot may break in the campfire, food would stick and the pot would always boil over. To my surprise the pot did not break, none of the food stuck to the pot and when the pot boiled over once we just moved the fire away from the pot and it kept a gentle boil until the food was cooked.

While the pot we experimented with is a copy from one found in Minnesota the same style of pots are found in Manitoba.

In the end thirteen of us enjoyed a wonderful meal cooked the old way. Now when any of us talk about pottery found at an archaeological site we can tell people how well these pots cook a meal.

Starting in April, Kevin Brownlee will share with visitors interesting facts about his work at The Museum and the research he is conducting. You may subscribe to the RSS feed so you will never miss a post!

In the meantime, here is a short description of the projects Kevin recently completed:

• Presentation at Special Area Groups (SAG) session on Creating a Space for Aboriginal Perspective (Council for Aboriginal Education of Manitoba Aboriginal Education): Kevin Brownlee and Leigh Syms, “Digging Deep: the Uses of Archaeology,” Winnipeg (Oct. 23, 2009).
• Presentation at Chacmool Conference (University of Calgary): Kevin Brownlee, “Nation Building through Archaeology,” Calgary (Nov. 12-15, 2009).
• Presentations at Manitoba Archaeological Society (MAS) Annual Conference in Swan River, MB (Nov. 20-22, 2009): “Hitting Rock Bottom: Current Research in Granville Lake” (Kevin Brownlee) and “From Pieces to Pots: The How and Why of Ceramic Vessel Reconstruction” (Morgan Tamplin, Kevin Brownlee, Leigh Syms, Andrew Fallak and Myra Sitchon).
• Submitted and received results from AMS dating on materials collected during summer field season.
• Research on ceramics from Sipiwesk Lake, South Indian Lake, Nelson House and The Pas for publication with volunteer assistance.
• Completed review of three illustrations of ceramics for ceramics manuscript prepared for Sipiwesk Lake Archaeology Project.