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Description

Canoe paddle. Flat blade tapers to a point. Remains of painted design in red and green on blade, mostly worn away - soft rope wrapped around shaft for approx. 7.5" acts as a grip. A crooked nail protrudes near the main handle grip.

History Of Use

According to Philip Drucker (in "The Northern and Central Nootkan Tribes" 1951, p. 85): "Paddles were of one type only, maintain informants: they were of yew, with a crutch handle (dowelled on), the shaft flattish at the top below the crosspiece, narrowing and becoming rounded at the grip, then widening to an elliptical blade tapering to a slender point. The form with the very long slender tip type described in early accounts as a dangerous potential weapon is not regarded as a distinct type. The paddles were blackened all over by rubbing them with gum from white fir 'blisters' and scorching them, leaving light-colored areas at the grips and usually a strip across the blade by wrapping these places with strips of kelp stems during the scorching. There were no differences between men’s and women’s paddles, nor was a paddle carved or painted. The proper length of a paddle was from the ground to the wielder’s chin."