 Indigenous Algonquin Canadian woman sewing birchbark onto canoe frame. Film still from "How Indians Build Canoes (1946)." On Saturday we looked at a birchbark canoe in the Hudson River Maritime Museum's collection. So today we thought we'd share a couple of documentary films about traditional birchbark canoe building. The first is called "How Indians Build Canoes" and was published in 1946 by the International Film Bureau. It was produced by Crawley Films in collaboration with the Canadian Geographic Society. Filmed in eastern Canada (possibly Ontario) this short film, together with another called "Trappers and Traders," was originally shown as a longer film known as "Portage" (1946), which described the Canadian fur trade. The film was digitized by the American Indian Film Gallery, a project of the University of Arizona. The second film is an hour-long documentary about reconstructing a historic 1860s Ojibwe birchbark canoe and was produced by Lakeland PBS, a public television station in central Minnesota. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
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 Birchbark canoe on display in the East Gallery, Hudson River Maritime Museum Collection. Today's Featured Artifact is this beautiful birchbark canoe. The museum was recently notified of a project to catalog birchbark canoes in museum collections across North America into one comprehensive online resource. Of course, knowing about this one, we had to add our canoe to the digital collection! Like many objects that get donated to museums, we don't know much about its history, except that it was built by Indigenous Algonquian people in Canada, sometime in the 1930s. It was donated to the Hudson River Maritime Museum in 1998 and is currently on display in the museum's East Gallery - you just have to look up to see it! Because it is currently being displayed on top of an exhibit case, we took these photos so you could see some of the beautiful interior details. Click on the images below to make them larger and click through the gallery. This canoe is listed in the digital collection created by The Museum of Underwater Archaeology and Georgia Southern University’s spring 2021 American Indian History class, which includes over 30 museums, parks, and historical societies across North America that have traditionally built birch-bark canoes in their collections. This digital storymap currently includes 54 bark canoes from Canada’s Northwest Territory to Savannah, Georgia. Each organization provided photos of their canoes and information about their origins, cultural affiliations, age, and physical characteristics. In addition, researchers visiting the storymap can download a spreadsheet containing the canoe data for analysis. The website also hosts videos on canoe construction and an interview with a traditional bark canoe builder. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
 Today's Media Monday video is one of our own! In this short documentary film, independent researcher Harv Hilowitz outlines the history of the Lenape people in the Hudson Valley, from pre-contact to the present. This video was recorded as part of the RiverWise Project. If you want to learn more, Harv is leading a series of programs on Lenape history aboard our 100% solar-powered tour boat Solaris! Get tickets here. To learn more about the Lenape in New York today, visit the Lenape Center. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
This video featuring the Stockbridge-Munsee Community History is part of the PBS Wisconsin Tribal Histories project. By the rapids of the Red River, Kimberly Vele tells of Mohican life in the Hudson Valley of New York before their move to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, followed by their forced removal to Indiana where they joined with the Munsee tribe before their final relocation to Wisconsin. James Fenimore Cooper was incorrect in predicting the demise of the Mohican people. The PBS Wisconsin Tribal Histories series are half-hour programs that presents the histories of all eleven federally recognized American Indian tribes and bands located in Wisconsin, plus one tribe that is seeking to regain its federal status. To learn more about the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians visit their website. If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
Kontiwennenhá:wi, which is translated as Carriers of the Words, is a women’s singing group that originated from the Mohawk Nation at Ahkwesashsne. Kontiwennenhá:wi is made up of young women, mothers, aunties and grandmothers, who all work full time as teachers, social workers, students, and retirees. Kontiwennenhá:wi hail from Ahkwesahsne, a Kanien’kehá:ka Territory that straddles the St. Lawrence River and incorporates portions of northern New York and southern Ontario and Quebec. In Ahkwesahsne, as in other Kanien’kehá:ka communities, women’s singing societies have always functioned to help community members in time of need. When Kontiwennenhá:wi performs outside of their community, they do not call themselves a singing society. That title is reserved for their work within their Territory and other Haudenosaunee communities. But they continue many of the same functions: the funds their performances generate are always directed back toward their community. While men and women sometimes have different singing repertoires and their songs serve different functions, women always take care to learn the men’s songs as well, so that the Mohawk way of life can be preserved even in times of crisis. In the spirit of this traditional role, Kontiwennenhá:wi, the Carriers of the Words, have embraced the “duty to help our language survive.... We believe that if our language dies, so will we as a Nation. Without our language we will have no culture. “We proudly share our songs and teach children so that we may honor everything that is natural to us. Through our songs we honor our Mother the Earth, our Grandmother the Moon, our Grandparents from every generation, the teachers of the Mohawk language, the Great Law of Peace, and more.” https://www.facebook.com/kontiwennenhawi WATER SONG - LYRICS - MOHAWK AND ENGLISH Written by Theresa "Bear" Fox Ionkwanoronhkwa Ohneka (we love water) Ionkwanoronhkwa Ohneka Kahnekaronnion mmmmm(all types of water) Kahnekanoron mmmm(water is precious) Kainawiia heiah Yoon gwa no loon gwa(we love) Oh ne gaw(water) Yoon gwa no loon gwa (we love) Oh ne gaw(water) Gah ne gaw loonyoon mmmm(all types of water) Gah ne gaw no loon mmmmmm(precious water) Guy naw wee yaw heh yaw (No words-we call it lala) Kahnekaronnion mmmmm Kahnekanoron mmmm Kainawiia heiah Gah ne gaw loonyoon mmmm(all types of water) Gah ne gaw no loon mmmmmm(precious water) Guy naw wee yaw heh If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today! History of the Water Song: There are many women’s water songs from many different cultures, and they all have deep meaning and beauty. The Water Song in this video has a lyric that is easy to learn and does not take a long time to sing. At the 2002 Circle of All Nations Gathering, at Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg in Ottawa, Canada, Grandfather William Commanda asked Irene Wawatie Jerome, an Anshinabe/Cree whose family are the Keepers of the Wampum Belt to write a song that women attending the gathering would learn and spread it throughout the world. Grandmother Louise Wawatie taught the Water Song to Grandmother Nancy Andry so she could begin her mission of spreading this powerful practice. Recently, in 2017, although Grandfather William and Grandmother Louise have crossed over, Grandmother Nancy met with the Elders again in Canada, and they were unified in agreement that a video of the song should be made to hasten the teaching and widen the circle of women singing it because of the increasingly grave dangers our waters are facing. The Wawatie and Commanda families gave permission to record the song on this video. For more information go to: https://www.singthewatersong.com/ If you enjoyed this post and would like to support more history blog content, please make a donation to the Hudson River Maritime Museum or become a member today!
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