Web Paddling: Windows on the Past

February-March 2003

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Ted Leather

We all use 21st century technology every day and our world seems like a technological marvel with the advent of modern materials - plastics and resins, metals, and silicon.

To me, no less amazing and even perhaps more so, is the technology that ancient peoples were able to create from the environment around them. Having only local stone, plants and animals as their raw materials, they developed cultures with sophisticated transportation, housing, medicine and tools to survive and thrive in all corners of this planet. Some of their technology has withstood the test of time, like the canoe and kayak, while the art of native cultures is enjoying a renaissance.

Watercraft are of particular interest to us, and The Canadian Museum of Civilization (www.civilization.ca/aborig/watercraft/wainteng.html) offers some interesting reading about native kayaks, umiaks, bark and dugout canoes.

The Canadian Canoe Museum (www.canoemuseum.net) houses the largest collection of canoes and kayaks in the world, featuring over 600 watercraft, with more than a third of native origin.

The Virtual Museum (www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/Traditions/English/) has two articles, one about the canoe and kayak, while the other is about the Coast Salish Canoe Racing which takes place at festivals on the west coast every summer. The Coast Salish live in southern British Columbia and Washington State.

In my web searching for this issue, I starting reading about native legends. For years I had a 'dreamcatcher' next to my bed, yet knew little of its significance. According to legend, dreams are messages from sacred spirits. It is said that the hole in the center of the web in the dreamcatcher allows the good dreams through while bad dreams are trapped in the web until they disappear in the morning sun. You can also read about the Legend of the Killer Whale; The Raven: the Brave Warrior; The Thunderbird's Story; The Deer Who was a Wolf Slave; and many more stories at www.nativeonline.com/ legends.htm.

For a glimpse into the early native culture of the Pacific Northwest, I liked the Canadian Museum of Civilization feature on the Tsimshian Society and Culture (www.civilization.ca/aborig/tsimsian/ intro02e.html). Most interesting to me were the shamanism, wealth and rank, and women's and men's activities sections. Also of note were th'e exceptional photographs of the people, their tools and their art. It is worth visiting this site, even if only to see the photos.

For further exploration, a good place to start is the Virtual Library - American Indians (www.hanksville.org/NAresources) which is home to a vast array of links to Native American resources. For example, by clicking on 'Culture', you are presented with links to hundreds of Tribe/Nations from the US, Canada and Latin America. By clicking on Artists' you have hundreds of links to painters, carvers, potters, jewelers, weavers, etc. Other sections include History, Language, and Indigenous knowledge.

If you missed them the first time, or want to read them again, the August/September 2001 issue and the February/March 2000 issue of WaveLength magazine have many articles about the native cultures of the Pacific Northwest. You can read those articles on-line by going to our Back Issues index at www.coastandkayak.com/magazine02.php.

I'm off to Costa Rica for the month of February, but I'll be back in time for the next issue. Until then, the (web) surf's up!

Ted Leather is the WaveLength Webmaster and operates Clayrose Internet Creations, an internet services company specializing in web site design and management. (ted@clayrose.com).