Hand-tinted stereograph, T. W. Ingersoll [?], c. 1899, 8.9 x 17.8 cm. 

Native American Indian woman (wearing long-sleeved blue dress, white apron, and red cravat) sitting on the ground next to canoe under construction and holding red tool.  Behind her are several other people and a structure made of wooden poles with a roof but no sides. Another structure and woods in background.  On front: “406.  Chippewa Squaw Making Birch Canoe.” 

On back: “As a matter of fact the whole family usually engage themselves in the making of the family canoe.  The old men bring from a distance the stones with which the bark is weighted and the ribs kept in position; the younger men and boys collect the tamarack and the cedar sticks which are to be fashioned into ribs and gunwals, while the girls and squaws gather the pitch which will be used in closing the seams and the fiberous reeds which will sew together the various pieces of bark entering into the structure.  From one to two weeks of pretty constant labor on the part of a large-sized family is required to complete a birch bark canoe, and when it is done it has a market value o [sic] $1.00 a foot; a 12-foot canoe brings $12.00, 16-foot $16.00, and so on.  Only the bark from large, white birch trees can be used and the larger the piece the greater the freedom from knots, the more valuable it is.  Birch bark canoes are becoming somewhat of a rarity, even among the Indians, as they find it far easier to throw together a sort of makeshift craft from cheap lumber than to construct the graceful boats which are characteristic of the Indians.  A8835”