❖ MAKAH CANOE CONSTRUCTION ❖ with JAMES SWAN ❖

Native canoe maker
Theodore Hudson uses adze to finish traditional
dugout canoe made by hand from one cedar log. 
Photo by Ruth Kirk
From the archives of Saltwater People Log©

"Washington Dugout Canoe
Cross-section and Sheer Plan.
Tap image to enlarge.
1890 Bulletin from the
US Fish Commission," included below.

Native canoe at sea.

Traditional Swinomish Native racing canoe, 10-man.1895, LaConner, WA.

From the writings of James G. Swan, Washington State author, historian.
From the 1890 Bulletin of the US Fish Commission.

"A canoe-maker's stock of tools is quite small, consisting only of an axe, a stone hammer, some wooden wedges, a chisel, a knife, and a gimlet. Those so fortunate as to possess a saw will use it occasionally, but the common method of cutting off a piece of wood or board is with the axe or chisel. And yet with these simple and primitive tools, they contrive to do all the carpenter work required. Canoes of the medium and small sizes are made by the Makahs from cedar procured a short distance up the strait or on the Tsuess River. After the tree is cut down and the bark stripped, the log is cut at the length required for the canoe, and the upper portion removed by splitting it off with wedges until the greatest width is attained. 
      The two ends are then roughly hewed to a tapering form and a portion of the inside dugout. The log is next turned over and properly shaped for a bottom, then turned back and more chopped from the inside, until enough has been removed from both inside and out to permit it to be easily handled when it is slid into the water and taken to the lodge of the maker, where he finishes it as this leisure. In some cases, they finish a canoe in the woods, but generally, it is brought home as soon as they can haul it to the stream.
      Before the introduction of iron tools, the making of a canoe was a work of many difficulties. Their hatchets were made of stone, and their chisels of mussel shells ground to a sharp edge by rubbing them on a piece of sandstone. It required much time and extreme labor to cut down a large cedar and it was only the chiefs who had a number of slaves at their disposal who attempted such large operations. Their method was to gather around a tree as many as could work, and these chipped away with their stone hatchets until the tree was literally gnawed down, after the fashion of beavers. Then to shape it and to hollow it out was also a tedious job, and many a month would intervene between the times of commencing to fell the tree and finishing the canoe. The implements they use at present are axes to do the rough hewing and chisels fitted to handles; these last are used like a cooper's adze and remove the wood in small chips.
      The process of finishing is very slow. A white carpenter could smooth off the hull of a canoe with a plane, and do more in two hours than the Native Indian with his chisel can do in a week. The outside, when it is completed, serves as a guide for finishing the inside, the workman gauging the requisite thickness by placing one hand on the outside and the other on the inside and passing them over the work. He is guided in modeling by the eye, seldom if ever using a measure of any kind; and some are so expert in this that they make lines as true as the most skillful mechanic can. If the tree is not sufficiently thick to give the required width, they spring the top of the sides apart, in the middle of the canoes, by steaming the wood. The inside is fitted with water which is heated by means of red-hot stones, and a slow fire is made on the outside by rows of bark laid on the ground a short distance off, but near enough to warm the cedar without burning it. This renders the wood very flexible in a short time so that the sides can be opened from 6 to 12 inches.
      The canoe is now straightened and kept in form by sticks or stretchers similar to a boat's thwarts. The ends of these stretchers are fastened with withes made from tapering cedar limbs, twisted and used instead of cords, and the water is then emptied out; this process is not often employed, however, the log is usually sufficiently wide in the first instance. As the projections for the head and stern pieces cannot be cut from the log, they are carved from separate pieces and fastened on by means of withes and wooden pegs. A very neat and peculiar scarf is used in joining these pieces to the body of the canoe, and the parts are fitted together in a simple and effectual manner. First, the scarf is made on the canoe; this is rubbed over with grease and charcoal; next, the piece to be fitted is hewn as nearly like the scarf as the eye can build, and applied to the part which has the grease on it. It is then removed, and the inequalities being at once discovered, and chopped off with the chisel, the process is repeated until the whole of the scarf or the piece to be fitted is uniformly marked with the blackened grease. The joints are by this method perfectly matched, and so neat as to be water-tight without any caulking.
      

Native fisherman and his family

The head and stern pieces being fastened on, the whole of the inside is then chipped over again, and the smaller and more indistinct the chisel marks are, the better the workmanship is considered. Until very recently it was the custom to ornament all canoes, except the small ones, with rows of the pearly valve of a species of sea snail. These shells are procured in large quantities at Nittinat and Clayoquot and formerly were in great demand as an article of traffic. They are inserted in the inside of the edge of the canoe by driving them into holes bored to receive them. But at present, they are not used much by the Makahs, for the reason, that they are continually trading off their canoes, and find that they bring quite a good a price without these ornaments as with them. I have noticed among some of the Clallams, who are apt to keep a canoe much longer than the Makahs, that the shell ornaments are still used. When the canoe is finished it is painted inside with a mixture of oil and red ocher. Sometimes charcoal and oil are rubbed on the outside, but more commonly it is simply charred by means of long fagots of cedar splints, set on fire at one end like a torch, and held against the side of the canoe. The surface is then rubbed smooth with a wisp of grass or a branch of cedar twigs. When the bottom of a canoe gets foul from long use, it is dried out and charred by the same process.
      The paddles are made of yew and are usually procured by barter with the Clayoquot Nation. The blade is broad like an oar blade, and the end rounded in an oval or lanceolate form. The handle is a separate piece fitted transversely with the length of the paddle, and sufficiently long to afford a good hold for the hand. These paddles when new are blackened by slightly charring them in the fire, and then rubbed smooth and slightly polished.

Canoes up above the tide and covered from the
hot sun during a clam bake at Neah Bay, 1920.
Original photo from the archives of the
Saltwater People Historical Society©

      In cruising on the Strait they usually keep well inshore, unless they intend to cross to the opposite side; and if the canoe is large and heavily laden they always anchor at night, and for this purpose use a large stone tied to a stout line. Sometimes they moor for the night by tying the canoe to the kelp. When the craft is not heavily burdened it is invariably hauled on the beach whenever the object is to encamp. If the wind is fair, or they have white men on board, they will travel all night but on their trading excursions, they usually encamp, which causes much delay in a long journey. I have been seven days, in the winter season, making the passage between Neah Bay and Port Townsend, about 100 miles, and in the summer have made the same trip in but little over 24 hours. The average passage is about three days for the distance named, which includes camping two nights.
      Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, who visited the Northwest in 1841, seems to have been much impressed with the canoes he saw there, and particularly so with the ingenious manner in which the natives repaired their boats. He makes the following statements:

      The canoes of this region [Oregon] differ from anything we had seen on the voyage. They were made from a single trunk and have a shape that may be considered elegant, and which is preserved from change from stretching or warping by means of thwarts. The sides are exceedingly thin, seldom exceeding three-fourths of an inch, and they are preserved with great care, being never suffered to lie exposed to the sun for fear of rents and cracks. When these do occur, the canoe is mended in a very ingenious manner: holes are made to the sides, through which withes are passed and pegged in such a way that the strain will draw it tighter; the withe is then crossed and the end secured in the same manner. When the tying is finished, the whole is pitched with the gum of the pine. This is neatly done, and answers the purpose well."