In the thousands of years before Samuel and around Ontario. Transportation provided by de Champlain explored the Great Lakes basin there the many types of watercraft would have been was scarcely a populated place where the land met essential to the indigenous peoples of the Great river, lake or bay that prehistoric people did not Lakes region, not only for fishing and crop use some form of watercraft. Today, there is a gathering, but also for short and long distance wealth of information about these indigenous trade with other indigenous populations. Such vessels from two primary sources: ethnographic considerations are important in formulating a accounts and archaeological remains. The Period cohesive understanding of the peoples who have of Contact provides us with European explorers' roamed our waterways for over 11,000 years. The letters, books, journals, sketches and paintings of earliest constructed watercraft used in the Great indigenous watercraft. We must also depend on Lakes region, aside from reed constructed craft, archaeology for additional knowledge about the was the skin boat (Roberts & Shackleton 1983: very earliest watercraft. In some geographical 145). areas the use of watercraft can be inferred simply because islands were settled and material remains were found (McGhee 1984: 7). In others, representations of vessels have been discovered in Indigenous peoples of the Arctic region the form of pictographs, petroglyphs, engravings, constructed the highest quality and most murals, models and even surviving aboriginal exceptional boats of animal skin. However, the boats. Woodland Indians were also familiar with hide Through the analysis of both historical covered craft and utilized this mode of and archaeological evidence, I wish to study the transportation to assist in many utilitarian tasks three primary watercrafts of the Great Lakes (Roberts & Shackleton 1983: 149). The simplest region: the skin boat, dugout canoe and bark skin boat used in the Great Lakes region was canoe. This discussion will include information on actually a coracle called a 'bull-boat'. Adapted the regional styles of bark canoes among the from the Plains Indians, the name was derived Eastern Cree, Algonquin and Colonial fur-traders. from the use of buffalo hides. Generally, one or It will also discuss the materials and methods of two of these hides were stretched over a basket- canoe construction, the decorative styles of these like framework of willow or other boughs. various canoes, and the variety of utilitarian Usually, the 'bull-boat' was towed by someone in purposes to which the canoe was employed. the water or propelled with short-handled paddles Ultimately, the focus of this paper is to analyze the or with poles. Moose skin was also used as the development of Great Lakes watercraft in an effort covering for rough-and-ready boats among people to emphasize the importance of this line of study to of the Woodlands region (Roberts & Shackleton a comprehensive and complete picture of Ontario 1983: 152). archaeology and prehistory. Ethnographic reports show that various Great Lakes groups used the bull-boat quite extensively. In the seventeenth century, north of Lake Superior, Pierre-Esprit Radisson became In the Great Lakes region, skin boats, involved with a party of Cree who were using a dugout canoes and birch bark canoes were used for bull boat (Radisson 1885: 123). George Seton centuries by the indigenous people. The gives other evidence of the use of the 'bull-boat' in environment dictated the need for watercraft and 1858, whereby he sketched a group of indigenous provided the natural resources for tools and peoples modifying the skin boat concept. The building materials. Environmental niches also location of these indigenous peoples was identified played a major role in the development of only as "Rupertsland", the name given earlier to specialized local watercraft in diverse regions in the old Hudson's Bay Company. Thus, the specific peoples who were using and modifying a 'bull- through it so as to gauge the thickness of the hull. boat' are not unequivocally known (Roberts & Once the desired thickness had been reached, the Shackleton 1983: 150). However, Seton reports holes were plugged in with wooden pegs that these peoples improvised with other (Christensen 1986: 148). The canoe was then construction materials to cover a frame while filled with hot water to soften the wood and make traveling. It is reported that sheath sections of it more pliable. The sides of the canoe were oiled cloth were carried along, that could be fitted stretched apart at the top, and held apart by shaped over canoe frames made from resilient willow rods called thwarts. Native watercraft branches and shoots. manufacturers would also make the boat wider at Roberts and Shackleton (1983: 153) report the center, and therefore much more stable than a that the 'bull-boat' was primarily constructed and round boat. This procedure would force the front maintained by women for assistance in the and the back of the boat to lift up slightly gathering of agricultural crops and natural (Christensen 1986: 152). The height of the bow foodstuffs, but was also used for fishing. Thus, the and stem relative to the center is called rocker. 'bull-boat' was primarily a type of watercraft used This was important because the more rocker a boat locally as a working transport and was rarely has the greater maneuverability it would allow. utilized as a long-distance travelling vessel. The hull of the dugout canoe was usually Through its capacity as a working vessel, it constructed so that the bow of the canoe was the allowed women the ability to carry out the bottom of the tree, because the wood from the gathering of crops in a much easier and more bottom of the tree is denser than the wood from the productive manner (Roberts and Shackelton 1983: top of the tree. Thus, with a single individual 154). In the Lake of Woods area, an unknown sitting towards the back of the canoe, the denser artist sketched Ojibwa women carrying these boats wood in the front would level the canoe out in the to and from the river. This artist also noted that water. This process is referred to as trim the boats were removed from the water when not (Johnstone 1980: 50). After the basic hull was in use, in order to help preserve the skin covering made, special attachments were designed. Often (Adney & Chapelle 1964: 219). there were decorative bow and stem cones that The 'bull-boat' was actually quite an served to break large waves and keep them from awkward vessel to construct and maintain. It was coming into the boat (Johnstone 1980: 52). relatively large, and the materials for its Many examples of dug-out canoes have construction were often sparse. Furthermore, it been found in Ohio. A 3,500-year-old dugout was required high maintenance to last any significant accidentally discovered in 1976 on the Ringler amount of time. As such, the bull-boat was not a property in Savannah Lake, Ohio (Brose & Greber mainstay in the Great Lakes region. While, it 1982: 274). This peat-filled bog had earlier continued to be employed on a minor scale for yielded two similar canoes. This vessel of white fishing and personal transportation needs, as oak, now known as the Ringler Archaic dugout, testified to by the ethnographic reports, generally has been radiocarbon dated to around 1,500 B.C. the bull-boat was replaced by the dugout canoe. This attests to the use of such canoes in the Great The 'bull-boat' simply did not provide a secure Lakes region before the first millennium B.C. basis for everyday extensive use by the indigenous Archaeologists Brose and Greber point out that the peoples of the Great Lakes region. Ringler dugout exhibits construction techniques that involved the use of fire and stone axes (Brose and Greber 1982: 275). The dugout is the most prolific and well The dugout canoe was probably the first known of all prehistoric boat types. The dugout type of canoe made by indigenous groups across canoe allows individuals and groups to travel North America (Johnstone 1980: 48). It was easily across great distances of water and for the constructed by selecting a tree of suitable size, movement of large amounts of cargo from place to which was then chopped or burned down at the place with little effort. It was very useful for the base. The top of the tree would then be cut off, travel necessary for getting to far away hunting and the outside roughly shaped, while the inside areas and returning to camp with game. was carefully burned and removed. Once the Furthermore, the dugout canoe is the most likely to canoe was the desired size many holes were drilled survive to be included in the archaeological record. The sturdy and hearty wood of a dugout canoe is Other uses of the bark canoe included the most unyielding construction material, food gathering. In the south and west of Lake compared to skin and bark, to natural bio- Superior, during harvest time in early September, decompositional processes (Hornell 1946: 46). women lined their canoes with thin birch bark and Although the dugout canoe was preferred paddled them into standing stalks of wild rice, a in the Great Lakes region to the skin-boat, it had staple of the Indian diet and an important trade disadvantages. Namely, the weight of the boat commodity (Roberts & Shackleton 1983: 162). made it difficult to transport on land and difficult The stalks were bent over the gunwales and the to paddle in the water (Johnstone 1980: 190; ears of rice were beaten with short paddles so that Christensen 1986: 145).