Nuu-chah-nulth Canoe Carving

February-March 2004

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
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by Jacqueline Windh

Until less than a century ago, dugout canoes were the most important method of travel on the west coast—even for the coast’s white settlers and missionaries. Today, First Nations canoe carvers maintain the tradition of carving dugout canoes by combining techniques and knowledge handed down for many generations with time-saving modern tools like chainsaws and metal axes.

Although coastal dugouts were each carved from a single log, different canoe styles were characteristic of different coastal tribes. This enabled native people from long ago to recognize an approaching canoe from afar, to know whether the visitors might be relatives or allies, or might be from a warring tribe.

Nuu-chah-nulth canoes are long and low, have a vertical stern, and sport a high bow shaped like the head of an animal. Formerly, they were charred black on the outside and rubbed with red ochre on the inside, and today they are painted these same colors. Canoes from more northerly tribes, like the Kwagiulth and Haida, are more crescent shaped, with a high bow and stern, and a sharp vertical edge at the bow waterline. These canoes are more ornate, with elaborate, colorful designs painted on their outside.

Joe, Carl and Bill Martin are brothers who have learned the art of canoe-building from both of their grandfathers, as well as from a bit of trial and error. With each canoe, they learn and refine their methods. They are Tla-o-qui-aht, which is one of the tribes that makes up the greater Nuu-chah-nulth group. Here are the steps that they take in making a canoe according to the traditions of their ancestors.

STEPS IN CANOE CARVING

A log of red cedar is selected. Key things they look for are straight grain, as few knots as possible, any evidence for rot in the center of the log, and of course sufficient width to make a well proportioned canoe of the desired length. Nuu-chah-nulth canoes (in their language, chapatz) range from 14 ft. or less, used for one or two people to paddle short distances, to 30-36 ft. whaling canoes and war canoes, to giant 50 ft. freight canoes used for moving between seasonal villages. Sometimes a live tree is cut, but often giant logs can be found on lakes, washed down by winter landslides, or washed up on outer coastal beaches. If a living tree is to be taken, a ceremony is conducted to thank the Creator before it is fallen. Then roughing out the hull begins.

Although Joe uses ancient traditional knowledge to design each canoe—no paper plans are used at all—he has adapted his carving methods to modern technology in order to speed up the roughing out process. Formerly, carving a canoe using knives and chisels made of shell and bone was a task that would have taken most of a winter, but Joe is able to rough out the outside of the canoe in a matter of weeks. He uses an Alaska Mill to square off and cut a log, from which he hopes to get a canoe as well as two totem poles.

Then he works on the shear line, the broad curve that will be the top of the canoe. He places two flexed strips of wood on the outside of the squared-off log as guides, slices a series of chainsaw cuts across the top of the canoe above the guides, then knocks the blocks of wood off with a hammer.

Joe turns the log over, so that what will be the bottom of the canoe is upward. He draws guidelines onto the wood, to design the outer curves of the hull. He starts on one side, doing a series of chainsaw cuts, hammering the blocks of wood out, and planing the rough wood smooth, then turns to the other side.