Indians 101: Kalispel sturgeon-nose canoes (museum tour)

by Ojibwa for Native American Netroots

Community

(This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022 Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022 at 8:08:13am PDT

The aboriginal homeland of the Kalispel (“Camas People”) was in the camas-rich area around Calispell Lake and the Pend Oreille River in what is now eastern Washington. Their homeland was heavily forested and mountainous with interspersed meadows. Their lifestyle prior to the coming of the horse was centered on the river. Their traditional territory followed the rivers into what is now northern Idaho and western Montana. A special exhibit in the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture (MAC) in Spokane entitled Awakenings: Canoes and Calling the Salmon Home included the unusual sturgeon-nose canoe used by the Kalispel Indians.

The long projections at the bow and stern of the canoe provides increased buoyancy and improves steering.

With regard to the unusual shape of the sturgeon-nose canoes, John Jennings, in his book Bark Canoes: The Art and Obsession of Tappan Adney, observes:

“They are, however, strikingly similar to the bark canoes of the Amur River of Asia, which forms the eastern boundary between China and Russia and flows into the Sea of Okhotsk.”