Among the wide ocean channels, foggy inlets, and salmon streams that snake through the temperate rainforests of Turtle Island’s Pacific Northwest, dugout canoes have forever been essential. They are part of daily life for the Indigenous inhabitants.

For the Tlingit people, dugout canoes, or Yaakw, have supported their coastal way of life since time immemorial. Often made of spruce, they were long used for maritime travel,trade, war, and hunting expeditions, and have been at the very centre of their people’s cosmology.

In their creation story, the Raven travels by canoe to bring light, water, and food.

Another myth describes Tlingit ancestors migrating by canoe under a glacier. Both myths show the canoe’s central role, symbolizing ingenuity, survival, and connection to the sea.

Traditionally, canoes were carved from entire trunks of old-growth spruce or cedar, either felled in the forest or gathered from beaches. Villages came together to carve these into canoes, often 40 to 50 feet long, capable of transporting dozens of people.

Hand adzes were used to shape the vessel’s exterior and interior, and boiling water and steam were then used to heat the wood and make it pliable. Spreaders would then be used to extend the canoe’s beam beyond the original width of the log.