Canoe, Model, D32.417

Small wooden model canoe, decoration with striped patterning, made from dyed cane. Curved edges and relatively flat bottom. Inside lined with tree bark.

Your canoe models (D32.417, D88.215 and D32.1614) look to be Anishnabe (Ojibway) work, from around the Great Lakes (other groups may have made them as well, but I’m most familiar with the Anishnabe). The bark is the inner bark of the paper birch. The coloured cane decoration on them is made from dyed porcupine quills (the quills’ natural colour is an ivory tone like the ones in the central triangle on D32.417). D88.215 is described as sewn together with strips of cane—the sewing material is different from the porcupine quill decoration. On full sized canoes, these lashings would be made of roots from the spruce (or sometimes pine) tree. Root looks to have been used on D88.215; the other two look to be sewn with thread. These were usually made as tourist trinkets, and the Niagara Falls one (D32.1614) is a great example of that. —Tim McShane

Locality: Canada