Indian couple canoeing on Pike Bay

This 1930s linen photograph postcard depicts a Bois Forte Band of Chippewa (Ojibwe) couple canoeing on Pike Bay, Lake Vermilion. The hand-crafted birch bark canoe, or wiigwaasi•jiiman in the Ojibwe language, was a principal means of transport in the lake country of northern Minnesota and across the Great Lakes. Canoe builders are quite skilled and are able to fashion these durable and sea-worthy crafts exclusively using materials provided by the northern Minnesota forest. Birch bark harvested from large mature trees in June provided large sheets of water-proof material to create the hull. These birch bark sheets were stitched together using spruce roots, (in Ojibwe—wadabiig) and pine pitch (bigiw) provided sealant for the seams. The ribs, gunwales and thwarts were often fashioned from cedar (giizhik).