The Great Canoes [Paperback]

Although this book discusses some of the building techniques of northwest coastal Indian canoes, it is not a "how-to" manual. Instead, it is more of a "coffee table" book dealing with the history, construction, and modern uses of the large dug-out canoes used by the Indians of Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska. As such, I found the book to be interesting and informative. There are many excellent color photographs of traditional northwest coast canoes, native people, and native clothing. I recommend it to anyone interested in traditional wooden boats or the native cultures of the northwest coast and southeast Alaska.

This is not a "how-to" book, nor does it pretend to be. And although it might be a nice "coffee-table" book, it is more than just a bunch of pretty pictures with some accompanyng text. Rather, it might be better described an an "homage" to the canoe and its place in the lives and heritage of the native peoples of the northwest coast.

Although it includes a large number of excellent photos, to the point that it almost seems the text is secondary, the book is primarily a series of relatively short "verbal essays" by native people from all up and down the coast. The speakers range from some very old-timers who can tell us about the way things were back when they witnessed first-hand the Great Canoes being built as a normal part of that lifestyle, up to modern day people just out of school, rediscovering their heritage first-hand by building canoes the old-fashinioned way.

The main point of most of these talks are what the people have learned or what the canoes mean to them. They talk about the religious nature of the acts of carving a canoe from an ancient tree, paying respect to the tree as a living thing, and the canoe as a thing that carries the living spirit of the tree. It is moving to read about the carvers and "pullers" (oarsmen and oarswomen), and how reconnecting with their native heritage has given them a rebirth as individuals and as a people (or many peoples, since there are many tribes).

I found their essays in many cases to be searingly soul-baring, in a very positive way, and their fire and enthusiasm for reinheriting their history and culture is absolutely inspiring in a way that is difficult to describe, but will reach deep inside you.

Although not a how-to book on building a sea-going canoe from an ancient westrrn red-cedar tree, there were a number of absolutely fascinating how-to tidbits sprinkled throughout. For example, how do you take say, a 60-foot long tree trunk, and decide which part should be the bottom? Simple (sort of): put it in the water and see which way the log turns and stabilizes! One of those things that you read it and just go "duh! of course!"

If you are interested in the canoes of the Northwest Coast, I highly recommend buying this book despite its high cost, as the photos and essays give an excellent idea of all aspects (except detailed how-to) of the process of canoe-building.

If you have a general interest in the northwest coast artwork, I would also highly recommend this book not because the artwork depicted on the canoes is fabulous, but because of the way that the text makes it clear that creating canoes (or paddles or totem poles or any other native art) is not just some thing anyone can just pick up and do "by the numbers," but is, rather, a religious connection to the world around us.