Researchers understand far more about Native American birch bark canoes in the Northeast than we do about the wooden dugout canoes used further south and west in the Mississippi and Missouri River Valleys in the 16th and 17th centuries. These canoes were fashioned from cedar, poplar, and cottonwoods, but much more is unknown about canoe history, tool techniques and how the introduction of European sailing technologies changed the use of these boats.

Peter H. Wood, emeritus historian from Duke University, will suggest some preliminary answers to these and related questions during a lunch and learn. This is a brown-bag style lecture, so please bring your own lunch if you wish.

Dugout canoes hollowed from large tree trunks were being used for Native American travel on much of the Mississippi River and its tributaries in the early contact era. But since the material was biodegradable, direct evidence of these boats is not available.

The interdisciplinary presentation will weave together archaeology, anthropology, material culture, Native American Studies, and environmental history with more traditional colonial American History (Prof. Wood’s field of training).