For millennia, indigenous tribes traversed the landscape of the Great Lakes through its waterways. The Ojibway, Abenake and other tribes navigated the networks of rivers and lakes with birch bark canoes. These elegant vessels were stable, nimble, durable and light enough for one person to portage.
They were far better suited than the cumbersome long boats of the European colonizers, which were heavy, easy to capsize, with deep drafts.
The canoes' water-worthy properties came from the white birch tree, Betula papyrifera, a deciduous tree in the willow family with distinctive papery bark that peels in thin horizontal layers around the trunk. Its natural oils make it pliable, strong and resistant to rot.
In harvesting the bark, the builders took care not to damage the inner layer of living cambium, the tissue that allows the tree to transport sap and nutrients and regenerate.
I've always envisioned canoes as starting with an interior framework, and then covering it with an outer material. But birchbark canoes are built from the outside in. On a sand-lined bed, the sheath of bark is weighted down with rocks, with the rough part on the inside of the canoe.
Then the frame is assembled inside that envelope, inserting steamed and bent cedar ribs. Ash wood gunwales are sewn to the edges with the roots of black spruce or jack pine trees. Finally, the seams are sealed with a sticky mix of pine pitch, deer fat and charcoal.
Today, most canoes are made of fiberglass and Kevlar, but many indigenous artisans keep alive the traditional knowledge of making birchbark canoes. Their value and beauty remain as deep as the waters of the Great Lakes.
