Of trees and boats
20/03/15 05:27
The indigenous tribes of the Pacific Northwest have different stories of the origins of their people. Some stories tell of long journeys - perhaps over a former land bridge across the Bering Strait. Some stories tell of journeys by canoe. Some stories report that the people arose in the land as a part of the creation of the land. On the west slopes of the Cascade mountains, where the rivers run down to the sea, four giants of the forest have stories that are tied to the story of the people.
The old ones tell of the oldest of trees. The one called “spruce” in modern languages is often known as the grandfather tree. There is a story of two brothers from the days of the beginning of the earth who grew to become the spruce and the hemlock. Other stories tell of the hemlock as the grandmother and the spruce as the grandfather. Spruce roots are amazingly pliable and very strong. They can be used to make baskets and to bind together the parts of a canoe. The wood of the spruce is straight grained and relatively easy to work. It is the best wood for making paddles and is also used for the gunwales or rails of the great canoes. The old people wore hats woven from spruce roots that kept their heads dry and sent the rain away from their bodies.
The inner bark of the hemlock, which has no relation to the poisonous plant from Europe that shares its name, can be ground into flour for cooking. The leaves and twigs yield oil that can be used for flavoring. The hemlock also gives red dye for face paint and coloring baskets and other items. People chew the pitch of the hemlock as gum for flavor, and pound the bark for medicine. If you are burned, the leaves can be chewed for a poultice to ease the pain and speed healing. Eating with a spoon carved from hemlock is said to be a key to a healthy life.
The real medicine tree of the northwest is called in modern language the Douglas fir. It isn’t a fir at all, but names stick. You can use the needles to make tea for aches, or the bark to make tea for stomach pain. The pitch makes a gum for chewing and a sealant for making baskets water-tight to haul liquids. The roots make baskets and can be used to bind up all sorts of things.
If you grew up Samish, you would know that the greatest tree of the land where the rivers run down to the sea is the cedar. In the old days the Samish made the best canoes there ever were. The Samish lived in homes that always faced the river or the sea. They were a people of the rivers and the sea. Their infants slept in cradles shaped like canoes and their departed loved ones were placed in the trees in canoes for their final journey: dead souls resting in canoes hoisted into the south wind. And their boats - all of their boats - were made of cedar.
Their houses, where many families lived together, were made of cedar. It is said that there were once houses that were a thousand feet long. In front of the houses they would stand the trunks of cedar trees carved into the stories of the people. Oh how they could tell stories! On rainy winter nights when the world was out of balance and the stories were the only thing to connect the past to the future the old ones could tell a story for ten hours or more. The stories of children are green. The stories of women are blue. And the stories of men are red. If you learn enough stories about starving, you will go to the land where there is no starving and the joys are as numerous as the birds on the wing.
The Samish but all sorts of canoes, from tiny ones for duck hunting to enormous ones for long journeys on the open ocean. They could sit fifty or sixty people in one big canoe. Sometimes they would sail the big canoes north or south after seals or whales. Sometimes the big canoes would go out for days and days at a time.
Sometimes a canoe would come back without any people in it. It was said that those people went to live in the sea. What that happened, they would make a new canoe of cedar and color it red with the juice from berries. Then they would load it down with fish and berries and hoist it high up into a spruce tree near the water. The canoes would stay in the tree for a long time, sometimes for years and years until one night in winter a wild wind would come and take the canoe back to the water for the people who had gone to the water to live.
I once made a kayak out of spruce cut into thin strips for a framework and covered it with cloth. It is long and narrow and designed for long journeys, though i have never paddled it for more than a few hours at a time. It is made in the way of the people of a different place in the north - Greenland - measured to the parts of my body to fit me for the journey.
I am not Samish, but I think they are right about cedar, however. It is the best wood for canoes. I have made three canoes and a kayak out of cedar and the kayak that is coming into being in my shop these days is cedar. I have strips from Eastern white cedar and Western red cedar and the colors are arranged in a pattern to make the boat look as fast as it will be. My kayak will be used for journeys only, not for hunting or fishing. The Samish knew of decked kayaks, but they preferred open canoes for fishing. There are stories of salmon bigger than the canoe and halibut as big as houses. The biggest fish had to be towed to shore because they were too big to hoist into the canoe.
The four trees: hemlock, Douglas fir, spruce and cedar still grow along the rivers that run down to the sea. I take a little of the spruce and a little of the cedar to make boats. Like the Samish, I hope to repay mother earth in stories. May the stories be as valuable as the trees that gave the wood for the journeys.
The old ones tell of the oldest of trees. The one called “spruce” in modern languages is often known as the grandfather tree. There is a story of two brothers from the days of the beginning of the earth who grew to become the spruce and the hemlock. Other stories tell of the hemlock as the grandmother and the spruce as the grandfather. Spruce roots are amazingly pliable and very strong. They can be used to make baskets and to bind together the parts of a canoe. The wood of the spruce is straight grained and relatively easy to work. It is the best wood for making paddles and is also used for the gunwales or rails of the great canoes. The old people wore hats woven from spruce roots that kept their heads dry and sent the rain away from their bodies.
The inner bark of the hemlock, which has no relation to the poisonous plant from Europe that shares its name, can be ground into flour for cooking. The leaves and twigs yield oil that can be used for flavoring. The hemlock also gives red dye for face paint and coloring baskets and other items. People chew the pitch of the hemlock as gum for flavor, and pound the bark for medicine. If you are burned, the leaves can be chewed for a poultice to ease the pain and speed healing. Eating with a spoon carved from hemlock is said to be a key to a healthy life.
The real medicine tree of the northwest is called in modern language the Douglas fir. It isn’t a fir at all, but names stick. You can use the needles to make tea for aches, or the bark to make tea for stomach pain. The pitch makes a gum for chewing and a sealant for making baskets water-tight to haul liquids. The roots make baskets and can be used to bind up all sorts of things.
If you grew up Samish, you would know that the greatest tree of the land where the rivers run down to the sea is the cedar. In the old days the Samish made the best canoes there ever were. The Samish lived in homes that always faced the river or the sea. They were a people of the rivers and the sea. Their infants slept in cradles shaped like canoes and their departed loved ones were placed in the trees in canoes for their final journey: dead souls resting in canoes hoisted into the south wind. And their boats - all of their boats - were made of cedar.
Their houses, where many families lived together, were made of cedar. It is said that there were once houses that were a thousand feet long. In front of the houses they would stand the trunks of cedar trees carved into the stories of the people. Oh how they could tell stories! On rainy winter nights when the world was out of balance and the stories were the only thing to connect the past to the future the old ones could tell a story for ten hours or more. The stories of children are green. The stories of women are blue. And the stories of men are red. If you learn enough stories about starving, you will go to the land where there is no starving and the joys are as numerous as the birds on the wing.
The Samish but all sorts of canoes, from tiny ones for duck hunting to enormous ones for long journeys on the open ocean. They could sit fifty or sixty people in one big canoe. Sometimes they would sail the big canoes north or south after seals or whales. Sometimes the big canoes would go out for days and days at a time.
Sometimes a canoe would come back without any people in it. It was said that those people went to live in the sea. What that happened, they would make a new canoe of cedar and color it red with the juice from berries. Then they would load it down with fish and berries and hoist it high up into a spruce tree near the water. The canoes would stay in the tree for a long time, sometimes for years and years until one night in winter a wild wind would come and take the canoe back to the water for the people who had gone to the water to live.
I once made a kayak out of spruce cut into thin strips for a framework and covered it with cloth. It is long and narrow and designed for long journeys, though i have never paddled it for more than a few hours at a time. It is made in the way of the people of a different place in the north - Greenland - measured to the parts of my body to fit me for the journey.
I am not Samish, but I think they are right about cedar, however. It is the best wood for canoes. I have made three canoes and a kayak out of cedar and the kayak that is coming into being in my shop these days is cedar. I have strips from Eastern white cedar and Western red cedar and the colors are arranged in a pattern to make the boat look as fast as it will be. My kayak will be used for journeys only, not for hunting or fishing. The Samish knew of decked kayaks, but they preferred open canoes for fishing. There are stories of salmon bigger than the canoe and halibut as big as houses. The biggest fish had to be towed to shore because they were too big to hoist into the canoe.
The four trees: hemlock, Douglas fir, spruce and cedar still grow along the rivers that run down to the sea. I take a little of the spruce and a little of the cedar to make boats. Like the Samish, I hope to repay mother earth in stories. May the stories be as valuable as the trees that gave the wood for the journeys.