Geraldine Coffin

“ A man may stand at the tip-end of bow or stern, and push with a pole, in shallow water. The people also who live up the rivers depend on this type of canoe for the spearing of salmon. When the fish are running in the rivers, one man paddles in the stern while a companion stands at ease out on the extreme end of the prow, with his spear poised ready for fish. ”

“ A popular term in the Northwest is the word “Chinook.” We find, for example, the “Chinook” wind, the “Chinook” jargon, and “Chinook” salmon. “Chinook” is also applied by Indians and whites to the type of hull just described, and appears in that sense in the works of Swan and Boas. The term, bearing in mind, of course, that it is used in a general sense and is not necessarily to be associated with the Chinook tribe proper, living at the mouth of the Columbia, is distinctive, and has the advantage of usage behind it. Locally, on Puget sound, the model goes commonly by this name. ”

“ It is a fact that the shovel-nose type of canoe is of wider distribution than the other types. It is the only type found in the marginal regions to the east and south of the area of typical North Pacific Coast culture. Thus is raised the presumption that it represents an older type of craft than do the other models.
The connection between northern California and the North Pacific area, which seems to be exemplified in the distribution of dugout canoes, is also a matter of some importance. ”

“ Boas alone has given the proper weight to differences in form. [9] On Puget sound at the present time there are six types of canoes in use, which are distinguished by the Indians not on account of their size but by differences in the shape of the hull. The variation in shape is very wide. On these waters one type of canoe is built for going to sea, and the lines of the hull are designed with the idea of enabling the craft to ride waves without shipping water. Every inch of the model is carefully calculated to keep it “dry.” No better craft for rough water, by the way, has ever been devised. ”

“ THE SHOVEL-NOSE CANOE USED ON PUGET SOUND, AND (b) THE CANOE USED BY THE YUROK OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA has a length of 80 ft. Model b in the diagram is usually made of fairly good size, in the neighborhood of 22 ft. long; but there is great variation in specimens. Model c is always small, and model f is never very large. We have not examined a large enough number of canoes to make it worth while to publish the measurements taken. The specimens from which the drawings were made were collected in the immediate neighborhood of Seattle and are in the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. ”

“ The facts of distribution make the idea of relationship much more plausible. It is worthy of remark that in California south of Humboldt bay there are no dugout canoes at all. Northward, however, dugouts are in use among all tribes as far as Puget sound. Moreover, in the case of some, at least, of the intervening tribes the shovel-nose or square-ended type of dugout occurs. ”

“ Ultimately it will doubtless be proved by a careful comparison, in the two areas, of houses, geographical notions, money and financial institutions, and other matters, that the mode of life of the tribes in extreme northern California is a direct offshoot of the type of culture found in the Northwest. ”

“ The bow-end of this boat is more slender than the stern. This type of boat is useful only in quiet waters. A characteristic piece of equipment is the canoe pole, he ́Δqalsιd. Such a canoe is fine for sandbanks and shoals where the heavy Chinook type, with its features designed for protection against waves, is largely useless. Far up the rivers no canoes other than the shovel-nose are seen. ”

“ The specimens on which this discussion is based were collected for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, in the immediate vicinity of Seattle. The native terms for the various models and for the parts of the canoes are in the “Duwamish” dialect of Salish. The sounds occurring in this and the other Salish dialects spoken on the upper part of Puget sound are represented in the following tabulation.
Of these sounds the following need, for the casual reader, some explanation. Surd l (written L) is an l produced without the help of the vocal cords. ”

“ The di ́twiL will carry only one person; but it is often very beautifully made. Specimens capsize very easily, but so long as they remain right-side up, they may be driven at high speed, and are light enough to be easily lifted and carried from place to place. They were used for fishing, and, following the introduction of firearms, for hunting ducks. Firing a shotgun over the side, however, turns the craft over. Bow and stern are finished off with very small carved pieces, which are set in place with the usual cedar pegs, and the bow carries the “notch” characteristic of the larger type. ”

“ This is true of the tribes about Klamath lake, for instance, as shown by a specimen of their canoes collected by Dr Barrett, now in the Museum of the University of California. Information on this point is unsatisfactory, for in this intervening area few observers have taken the pains to note in detail what kinds of canoes were used. This is true of much of Oregon, even on the coast. Vancouver says of the Indians of Port Orford that “their canoes, calculated to carry about eight people, were rudely wrought out of a single tree ”

“ When on a trip the Indians pad them with an old mat, folded.
26. Withes of twisted cedar limbs, which fasten the thwarts, cli ́dclidgΔs.
They are rove through a perforation in the thwart, and then through perforations in the side of the boat. Similar withes are used for mending cracks and in fastening the bow and stern sections in place (see No. 7 above) . The present word refers to the way in which they are manipulated in fastening thwarts in place. ”

“ No. 8: Relations of Aboriginal Culture and Environment in the Lesser Antilles, By J. Walter Fewkes. Reprinted from Bull. Amer. Geogr. Soc., Vol. 46, 1914, No. 9. 50c.
No. 9: Pottery from Certain Caves in Eastern Santo Domingo, West Indies. ”