How were dugout canoes made in the Northeast culture area?

In the Northeast culture area of North America, dugout canoes were traditionally crafted from the trunks of whole trees.1

While specific regional accounts of the manufacturing process for Northeast groups are less documented than those of other areas, the general method for creating a dugout involves hollowing out a log through a combination of burning, chipping, and scraping. This process is designed to ensure the resulting hull is both strong and buoyant.2

Beyond simple trough-shaped hulls, some dugout designs were further refined by spreading the sides of the boat after shaping, often by warping the wood with hot water. Additionally, some designs utilized a main dugout hull with sides raised by adding planks, which were secured using pegs or by sewing the seams with lashings. In the Northeast, these dugouts were used alongside the more widely recognized birchbark canoe, which was constructed using a sapling framework covered in sheets of bark.31