Gifts from Mother Earth
Benji pictured with his first official replica birch bark canoe, standing at 6 feet in length, made with the guidance of his uncle Don Wedll
By MASHKODE-BIZHIKIGAHBAW, BENJI SAM
Native people across the world have been renowned for centuries for finding some of the most creative ways to use items from Mother Earth to survive even in the most harsh conditions known to man. It has been described by historians that to survive in these conditions from -40 degrees to 100-plus Fahrenheit, the Ojibwe were some of the most creative in finding ways to scale the landscape, store food year-round, and maintain healthy living with the help of handmade items. Wiigwaas, birch bark, is one of the most important tools used by our people year-round and a case can be made that this is the single most important item harvested by Native People in the history of North America.
Wiigwaas is one of the most versatile materials in our region and was historically used to cook in, gather herbs and berries, haul items, store water, write historical markings and ceremonial teachings, build baskets, insulate homes, weave bags, decorate, start fires, boil sap, finish wild rice, and of course build bark canoes. Birch bark canoes may have been the single most important item in our own Tribe’s history because of our teaching of traveling to where the food grows on water. It allowed Our People the ability to cross and navigate lakes, rivers, and streams as well as the ability to gather fish and deliver meat across long distances with changing of the seasons.
It has been written that with proper care, birch bark canoes can last a lifetime due to their strength and craft quality. William C. Bryant, who was a writer for the New York Times in the mid 1800s, once wrote that the birch bark canoe is one of the most beautiful, perfect things to ever be constructed by human art. But to call building a full-sized birch bark canoe simply art is an understatement and anyone who has ever gathered the materials and has taken the time to construct a birch bark canoe knows how much goes into each boat.
There is a reason our people were notorious for building just one single boat per year — there is a lot that goes into the process. Birch bark must be gathered in some of the year’s most hot and humid days with bugs buzzing through the forest so that we may harvest bark without hurting the tree. Tamarack and spruce roots are also gathered when the swamps become navigable and are used to hold the boat together. You must also fell a straight cedar tree and age cedar planks to be split paper thin. Pine sap must also be harvested to seal the canoe in a pitch mixture to maintain its waterproofing. And lastly, you will always need enough hands to help shape, cut, tie, steam, bend, retie, and finish each piece to the puzzle to be used for decades to come. These instruments were so well built that each fall, instead of letting the harsh winter beat down on these tools, our people would wade into the shallow, muddy water bays to sink canoes in the water to preserve for the following spring.
I first learned about using birch bark from my grandmother, Betty Kegg, around the age of five years old. I can still remember spending hours a day gathering, preparing, painting, tracing, and cutting bark for her. I always seemed to make a mess in the garage, and I can remember her scolding my dad for getting paint on the floor, but she never seemed to mind when I did. She was renowned across Indian Country for her Ojibwe artwork, and her mother Maude Kegg was also known nationally for her beadwork and birch bark basket making, and as her hands became softer and more fragile, mine grew stronger and coarser. Memories like that are what helped shape me into the person I am today.
I have spent more time this summer returning to my teachings and building canoes, baskets, earrings, and remastering the craft of birch bark art. I still use many of the stencils we made throughout my childhood and have been practicing double running, double diagonal, and whip stitch variations with wiigoob, tamarack, and spruce root. I am so thankful for my grandmother for sharing her knowledge with me at such a young age on how, and when, to gather birch bark, basswood bark (wiigwaas), and red willow vine (miskwaabiimag), and how to treat these items to build birch bark baskets, canoes, earrings, bowls, bags, and grass dolls, and also for my uncle, Don Wedll, for teaching me how our Ancestors first built birch bark canoes. I hope to continue passing these skills on to new generations so that our culture’s history and art can be enjoyed until the end of time.
More information can be found on birch bark artwork at The Mille Lacs Indian Museum and Trading Post, where many baskets, canoes, and other birch bark items are for sale and on display while depicting historical impacts across our Nation’s history.
Benji and his grandmother, Betty Kegg, could often be found spending time together making arts and crafts when he was young
Benji, his late father David 'Amik' Sam, and late niece Tanya Skinaway shared the woods collecting a beautiful birch tree used for making baskets and canoes.
