What Is A Birch Bark Canoe Made Of?

The Birchbark Canoe is a significant invention in Anishinaabe culture, as it is smooth, hard, light, resilient, and waterproof. The bark of the birch provides a superior construction material, as its grain wraps around the tree rather than traveling the length of it, allowing the bark to be more expertly shaped. Other styles of bark canoes include spruce, pine, elm, and cedar bark.

To build 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. The frame is constructed inside this bark envelope, usually with steamed and bent cedar ribs, ash gunwales, and cedar sheathing. Natives made a profit by gathering birchbark and building birchbark canoes to trade with Europeans and other Native groups.

The bark comes from a White Birch tree, Betula papyrifera Marsh, which is common throughout Canada and the northern United States. The birchbark canoe was first used by the Algonquin Indians in what is now the northeastern part of the United States and adjacent Canada, and its use passed through generations. Today, finding the tree is the hardest part of making a canoe, but smaller pieces of birch bark can be used by lacing them together.