07/18/2023
Gete Anishinaaabe Ningaasimoonowin
Bark canoes and Cedar Sails: Breathing life into Ancient Indigenous Sailing Practices on Lake Superior
Here are some pictures of sailing a birch bark canoe using a hand woven cedar bark sail, with a tamarack mast and sprit off the Bad River Reservation at the northeastern shore of Madeline Island. This is an old Anishinaabe form of down wind sailing rig long used with the wiigwaasi jiimaan for making distance on the large open waters of the Great Lakes. Over the past 300 years wool trade blankets and occasionaly canvas were commonly used for this form of sail. Prior to the introduction of European made blankets and cloth, simple textile sails were woven from local materials.
During the first two weeks of July, our team at Great Lakes Lifeways Institute coordinated a unique collaboration of tribal programs and partners including Red Cliff, Bad River, Aakiing, Nis’to Inc, and a wide variety of individuals from Tribal Nations across the region, to work together to explore, reimagine, and revitalize traditional knowledge and practices of canoe sailing in partnership with the Madeline Island Community. This initially involved working with some very knowledgeable boat builders and sailers from the island to recreate and understand the design and function of Ojibwe sailing rigs based upon historic paintings, photographs and written descriptions. Once the sailing rig was assembled it was successfully tested on the open water using a wool blanket for the sail itself.
Our next step was to manufacture a functional old school sail using only materials from the land. A number of islanders, supporters and friends generously offered for our team to harvest cedar bark at a few different properties. We selected cedar bark from straight mature trees and removed one small strip of bark from each tree, following protocol, as to not permanently damage any of the trees.
For the next few days we worked to split, clean and cut enough strips of cedar to weave the sail. Together our team planned the design of the sail, dyed the necessary strips of bark, tied the selvage and assembled a weaving frame.
Most of the weaving took place at Joni’s beach in La Pointe, as part of larger public event organized by Aakiing to raise awareness for the protection of the water. The weaving process was open to the public to help and participate in. I’ll have a second post soon with more pics and info on the weaving.
The maiden voyage was in a 16ft wiigwaasi jiimaan (birch bark canoe) specially rigged with an extra pierced thwart and mast step. We had a great time making good speed and maintaining fair control, in moderate wind, sailing the big water between Madeline and Michigan Islands. There is a great beauty in so many people coming together to dream, envision and to work with their hands and hearts to reconnect in a deep way with land, the water and with one another.
This was a big step for all of us in learning together and it’s a first step in many, when it comes to the old ways of traveling on the water.
I would like to put out a huge thanks to everyone to came and stepped up to help, support and participate in this project. There are far too many folks to name everyone but here are a few:
Mike Wiggins Jr., Paul DeMain, Coordinators Nathan and Alex and Youth from Bad River Band of Ojibwe and Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, the folks at Aakiing, Shannon Giizhik & Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, Pennelys Droz, Chetan and the Squirrels, Scott Hayden for being a spectacular and generous host for our camp, Nis’to Inc and Sean Contreras for bringing so many amazing Dakota youth, our powerful and beautiful squad of grandmas: Bwaananaabekwe Mary Moose, Daisy Kostus, Kathleen Delores Westcott, Marsha Traxler Reeves and Kelly Willis, all of the folks on the island and area who supported advised and participated in this work notably: Sandy Gokee (Sansy Fu**in Gokee), Mike Demain and the Badass Fish Crew, the LCO team who prepped the new campsite area, Hanna and Kyra Bingham for all their time help and care, Jesse Conway our partner in paddle mischief and Drew at the Gallery for always supporting and showcasing the work. Zach for all his help and support and for bringing all the little folks to put there hands on the cedar. To Ivan, John SonofMel, Michael Laughing Fox, David Huckfelt, and Annie Humphrey for their good music, Cedar and Alex for generous camp and food support, Martin Curry for holding everything down on the island at high speed all the time, Mike Caswell and Bob Teisberg for all their help, support and knowledge about old time sailing and rigging, Frank Vandehei for consistently showing up and being dedicated to the water, the land, the people and the work, Kaesha Baloch for her endless dedicated in weaving this all together and always looking after everyone, Ogimaawab Sutherland for bringing his knowledge of the aadizookaanag and Anishinaabe history and culture as a breath of life into this work, and of course to Maggie Finney and Donovan who were dedicated to so many hours of weaving through the end.
