You see them used on Youtube when they are trapping .In that deep snow country it does seem they would be handy .What are they called and are they still being used by a lot of trappers or is it just a bit of modern Bushy green white guys trying to sell them or teach you how to make them on the internet ? Are most spruce or birch ?

I have seen those too.Very cool.I would like to know,as well.

I don't know about the cree, but I made one after being instructed how from Asa Lenon

* Internet photo *

They made what they needed from materials available.
Usefull stuff is toboggans and sleighs and canoes from birch-snowshoes from ash or tamarack depending on use, snow scoops and canoe paddles from spruce,and poles of all sorts for camps etc.
Another thing the cree still do is when they leave a fish camp or hunt camp they will girdle a bunch of trees so when they come back next year they have plenty of standing dry firewood.
Everything was carved with a crooked knife.
Today you will see a small plastic shovel from walmart in the sleigh to scoop snow as often as a carved spruce one.
Plastic doesnt hold up well though when its 40 below,I prefer aluminum.

Interesting stuff Boco

Crooked knives almost don't exist now. That and a lot more lost in recent decades. Rate of change is going almost straight up.

Agree,Frank.A lot of people around here dont even know what a crooked knife is.

Boco, I am reading a book called North to Cree Lake written by a fellow by the name of Art Karras who was from Saskatchewan and along
with his brother went north from civilization and made a good living trapping up there during the Depression in the late 30's.
How big or what territory did the Cree occupy? He mentions Chipewyans also in his book.
Great book about life in the north during tough times.
Zim

The Cree covered a huge area.There were a lot of different Cree cultures-Swampy Cree around James bay,they also distinguish between the Coasties and Inland Cree.Then there are the Cree of Northern Quebec(Inninnew).These people are mostly related to the western James Bay Cree(Moose Cree) and share Hunting territory by treaty among each other.Quebec Cree come to western James Bay(Ontario) to hunt geese,and Moose Cree go over to Eastern James Bay(Quebec)to hunt caribou.
Further south is Oji Cree.Ojibwa and Cree are all Anishnabe.
Then there was Plains Cree,and likely more that I dont know of,like the Cree of the Northern western provinces.
There were a lot of alliances and rivalries during the several hundred years of the fur trade.There are a lot of Nations,like the A'aninin that were wiped out and no longer exist especially by the Iroquois,Cree and Bungee(Gt Lakes ojibwa) Trappers that went west to trap beaver for the Canadian(Montreal) Fur Companys which were in competition with the HBC.
The western Ojibwa were known as Saulteaux.

Thank you Boco. It is interesting to me how folks lived and interacted years ago.
This guy never mentions any hostility with any of the natives they encountered.
It was obvious though he could see deterioration in their lives as "civilization" moved north.

Zim

Zim,I recommend this book if you like a good read and are interested in a comprehensive history of the early and later fur trade.

I'm going to look for that Book!

Very Interesting !

Ever why there was people name 'Cooper", they all had curved knives for their trade.

On an archaeological dig of a fur trade 1790 post was an interesting find.
Luckily I was not sent to dig one spot...it was referred to as the " loo"
8 feet deep of organic with everything actually not allowed on the fort, broken whiskey bottles, HBC long stem clay pipes,and bones
You could tell it was the coopers toilet because the bones had features only a curved knife would do.

Go to any farm & ranch store and with the horse shoes or close by and you can buy a hoof knife (they make lefts or rights or ambidextrous do not get the ambidextrous if you are a lefty ) AKA farrier knife . There you have your crooked knife (I saw a you tube video of a Cree making a drum and his crooked knife is exactly like the one in my shoeing box . Thanks BOCO you did good and Iknew you would fill us in .

The crooked knife.... Named as such because after using it your hand will be crooked.

Here's a pulled birch broom that i made, based on a cree lodge broom. Mine has a much longer handle.



my crooked knife. made from file and handle stained with hemlock stain.

Nice.