Algonkian is a family of related languages spoken over a wide area of Canada. When Europeans first arrived on the shores of this continent, Algonkian-speaking people occupied the whole Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, most of Quebec, northern Ontario and parts of the Prairies. The Algonkian tribes populating these great eastern woodlands were the Ojibwa, Cree, Algonquin, Montagnais, Micmac and Malecite. The most important cultural item among the Algonkian Indians of the eastern woodlands is birchbark. It was used for the construction of canoes, wigwams and many types of containers. The Algonquins were a loosely organized tribe inhabiting the Ottawa Valley, both on the north side and on the south between the Ottawa and Lake Nipissing. Being hunters and collectors, they relied heavily on deer, berries, rabbits and fish. The territory of the Swampy or Woodland Cree extended from Lake Mistassini in Quebec to Lake Winnipeg and from the Ojibwa territory on the south to that of the Subarctic Indians on the north. Commonly considered a tribe, the Cree were in reality a series of bands, each fading into adjacent groups. The large area they inhabited had poor hunting resources and theirs was a marginal existence largely dependent on moose, deer, caribou and rabbits. The Ojibwa were the residents of the enormous wooded area west of the Ottawa Valley between the Cree on the north and the Iroquois of the Great Lakes region to the south. Each Ojibwa band tented to have its own dialect and way of life so that there were marked differences between the eastern and the western Ojibwa. As a whole, they were woodland hunters and fishermen who supplemented the results of their hunting skills with berries and wild rice. This necessitated seasonal migrations. In the winter they separated into small family groups and retired to a favourite hunting area. In the spring they collected maple sap and then gathered for the summer in larger villages where they planted corn. During the fall, the wild rice was gathered and white-fish were caught by those near Sault Ste. Marie. In the Maritime provinces were the Malecite and Micmac. They were primarily hunters and collectors of shellfish. Some corn was grown in southern New Brunswick. Northern Quebec was the domain of the Naskapi Indians. The south-west bands were called Montagnais by the French, and belong culturally and linguistically to the Algonkian group. Their population was small and their material culture, art and political structure extraordinarily simple because of the sparse resources of their environment. The anonymous painting "Micmac Indians" is reproduced courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada. The artifacts, photographed by Ray Webber, are from the collections of the National Museum of Man, the Royal Ontario Museum and Mrs. Alika Podolinsky-Webber. They are, from left to right; a Tête-de-Boule birchbark basket (the Tête-de-Boule are a division of the Ojibwa); an Ojibwa wooden papoose carrier; a pair of snowshoes for a Montagnais child; a Malecite birchbark basket; a Montagnais birchbark box; a Montagnais knife; and a Micmac birchbark basket decorated with porcupine quillwork. Typography and layout for the two stamps were the responsibility of Georges Beaupré.
Canada Post Press release 1973.
The canoes in front of this 8c stamp were used by the Algonkians people and are made of birchbark.
The birchbark canoe was the principal means of water transportation for Aboriginal peoples of the Eastern Woodlands, and later voyageurs, who used it extensively in the fur trade in Canada.
The birchbark canoe of the Algonkian peoples was ideal for travel by rivers and lakes separated by narrow watersheds or portages
In building a canoe, bark is stripped from the birch, placed inside a staked frame, sewn and attached. Ribs are fixed in position and seams sealed with spruce gum.
Large birchbark canoes, were used by northern native groups to reach interior waterways in search of caribou The Kootenay-Salish canoe was built for the rapid rivers of southern BC, with both ends extending out under the water. The birchbark canoe was the principal means of water transportation for Aboriginal peoples of the Eastern Woodlands, and later voyageurs, who used it extensively in the fur trade in Canada. Light and maneuverable, birchbark canoes were perfectly adapted to summer travel through the network of shallow streams, ponds, lakes and swift rivers of the Canadian Shield. As the fur trade declined in the 19th century, the canoe became more of a recreational vehicle. Though most canoes are no longer constructed of birchbark, its enduring historical legacy and its popularity as a pleasure craft have made it a Canadian cultural icon.
“The Only Craft Suitable”
Canoes were a necessity for nomadic northern Algonquian peoples like the Innu (Montagnais-Naskapi), Ojibwa, Maliseet and Algonquin. After sustained contact with Europeans, voyageurs used birchbark canoes to explore and trade in the interior of the country, and to connect fur trade supply lines with central posts, notably Montréal. Samuel de Champlain noted the canoe’s elegance and speed, and remarked that it was “the only craft suitable” for navigation in Canada. Artist and author Edwin Tappan Adney, who dedicated much of his life to the preservation of traditional canoe-making techniques, claimed that European boats were “clumsy” and “utterly useless;” and thus, the birchbark canoe was so superior that it was adopted almost without exception in Canada. As such, most European explorers navigating inland Canada for the first time did so in birchbark canoes.
Construction
Birchbark was an ideal material for canoe construction, being smooth, hard, light, resilient and waterproof. Compared to other trees, the bark of the birch provided a superior construction material, as its grain wrapped around the tree rather than travelling the length of it, allowing the bark to be more expertly shaped. Birch trees were found almost everywhere across Canada, but where necessary, particularly west of the Rocky Mountains in the western Subarctic, spruce bark or cedar planks had to be substituted.The skills required to build birchbark canoes were passed on through generations of master builders. The frames were usually of cedar, soaked in water and bent to the shape of the canoe. The joints were sewn with spruce or white pine roots, which were pulled up, split and boiled by Indigenous women. The seams were waterproofed with hot spruce or pine resin gathered and applied with a stick; during travel, paddlers re-applied resin almost daily to keep the canoe watertight. Canoes were often painted on the prow, depicting colours, drawings or company insignia. The shape of each canoe differed according to its intended use, as well as the traditions of the people who made it.
As the fur trade grew, increasing demand meant Aboriginal producers could no longer supply all the canoes needed. Around 1750 the French set up a factory at Trois-Rivières.
Types of Canoes and Routes
The types of birchbark canoes used by Aboriginal peoples and voyageurs differed according to which route it was intended to take and how much cargo it was intended to carry.
The famous canot du maître, on which the fur trade depended, was up to 12 m long, carried a crew of six to 12 and a load of 2,300 kg on the route from Montréal to Lake Superior. Past Lake Superior, the smaller canot du nord carried a crew of five or six and a cargo of 1,360 kg over the smaller lakes, rivers and streams of the Northwest. The canoes were propelled by narrow paddles with quick, continuous strokes, averaging 40–45 per minute.
The avant (bowsman) carried a larger paddle for maneuvering in rapids and the gouvernail (helmsman) stood in the stern. A canoe could manage 7 to 9 km per hour, and a special express canoe, carrying a large crew and little freight, could cover longer distances in typical 18 hour days.
Cultural Legacy
The canoe is a cultural mainstay in Canada. Its image is used as a symbol of national identity in countless iterations. For example, the 1935 Canadian silver dollar’s reverse image, designed by Emanuel Hahn, depicts a voyageur and Aboriginal person canoeing together in front of a windswept jack pine, under the northern lights, with a cargo of Hudson’s Bay Company furs. The canoe is also featured in the Québécois folk story La Chasse-galerie, and is a popular choice for designers and marketers wishing to evoke a sense of Canadian identity.
Canada 1973 8c sg724, scott
Canada 1908 3c sg?, scott 99 (the bark canoe is in the foreground of the stamp.)
Source downloaded from http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/e ... ark-canoe/