The Cree tradition of snowshoe-making is being revitalized thanks to newly designed courses that take participants from finding the right tree to each intricate step of the frame bending and lacing processes.
While the Chisasibi band office has offered workshops for the past decade, the wood was always provided to the students, so they never learned how to make snowshoes from scratch. Last year, Christopher Cox and Lee Ann Angatookaluk created a non-profit organization called maaskinaachaasiuch (“trailmakers”), with the administrative support of Vincent Gautier-Doucet.
“I wanted to change the program to something you could really learn from,” Cox told the Nation. “Nobody knew how to get a snowshoe tree until we changed the program – it should have been like that the first time. If you don’t get the right tree, you don’t know how to cut or to measure.”
With funding from Niskamoon Corporation, Cree Native Arts and Crafts Association (CNACA) and other organizations, the initial course was offered in Chisasibi from October 25 to December 7. The 12 participants met six days a week: weeknights from 6-10pm and Saturdays from 2-6pm, when framing instructors Cox and Harry House would take advantage of the daylight to find trees.
According to traditional gender roles, men would handle the framing and middle laces with women lacing the top and bottom sections; the courses encourage everyone to learn all aspects of development. Other maaskinaachaasiuch instructors – Abraham Cox Sr, Connie Bearskin and Ruby Napash – helped guide participants with traditional teachings.
“There are not many of us left who can still make these things used in traditional activities,” said Christopher’s grandfather Abraham Cox, who made his first snowshoes about 70 years ago at age 14. “A person who knows which tree is good to use for snowshoes knows just by looking at the branches.”
As a field technician for the Chisasibi Council of Elders, Christopher Cox learned the traditional snowshoe-making craft from his grandfather and other Elders about 11 years ago. However, he modernized the design used by Cree hunters for thousands of years by moving the foot-hold closer to the front.
“The Elders were all experts at making snowshoes,” explained Cox. “I figured out how to make them more efficient and easier to walk on. In the old days they had no measurements, all the snow would accumulate in the front, so they’d get heavier and heavier.”
Today’s snowshoe-makers have the advantage of precise measurements and a full range of tools for cutting, lacing and binding the wood together. While caribou or moose hide is ideal for the laces, modern snowshoes generally use synthetic paracord, which is available at Chisasibi’s Ouwah Store.
Proper tree selection is the key to creating successful snowshoes but finding the right tamarack or birch isn’t easy. Once a suitable growing area is identified, Cox will often find three or four good trees. Although sometimes he cuts a “wrong one”, he’ll still take it home for handmade crafts to avoid wasting anything.
“The hardest part is finding the right tree and next is the bending part,” said Cox. “You have to look for one that’s really nice and straight like a chimney with nice grain. Flexibility, no knots, in an open area. You have to walk around, test it out, look at the tree very carefully at the bottom.”
Following the grain of the wood’s shape is essential as cutting it will break the snowshoe. With today’s tools, it takes about a week for someone experienced to make a pair – by hand it would take closer to a month. Among the 34 pairs made during the Chisasibi course, one man who had previously studied with Cox made six.
The Chisasibi course was divided between a bush camp and canvas winter shelter. The diverse group of participants in their 20s and 50s included some who had previously attended workshops and wanted to perfect their craft. Through physical activity on the land, one man observed that he had lost 10 pounds.
“It was a very intensive program, very intimate,” noted Gautier-Doucet. “It’s a communal activity, a bit of a therapy. We had catering on the weeknights. You become part of a little family that’s together six days a week.”
As a non-Native working with the Cree Nation Research Institute Project, Gautier-Doucet helped launch maaskinaachaasiuch in gratitude for learning snowshoe-making from Cox and Angatookaluk over the past four years. Many participants were interested in taking the course again to become more fully autonomous.
Following Chisasibi, the maaskinaachaasiuch instructors held another successful course in Eastmain throughout January. Angatookaluk said they are proud to transfer this knowledge to younger generations.
“We find it inspiring for young women to do more hands-on snowshoe parts,” said Angatookaluk. “Some older women who came by the last few days learned the lacing a long time ago when they were teenagers. They say it brings back memories of their grandfathers or grandmas making snowshoes.”
While few Elders can spend much time in the cold or lift heavy logs in the bush, Cox provides wood for them to work on snowshoes from home. As indispensable tools for carrying nomadic ancestors across deep winter drifts, snowshoes have profound cultural significance.
Cox alluded to one story about the spider making a web for the rabbit to cross the snow. According to tradition, snowshoes have to be held pointing in both directions to ensure the walker returns home and doesn’t get lost. Cox advised to always put them on in the morning sun where you’re walking from.
Snowshoes remain essential footwear for Cree hunters in the snowy bush and highly popular for diverse winter activities. With substantial demand within Eeyou Istchee and beyond, including CNACA’s Wachiya Store and online marketplace, snowshoe-making is a potentially lucrative economic opportunity.
“My partner and I cannot keep up with the demand,” said Cox. “People are always asking me personally, even from out west, the south. There’s big demand for snowshoes – no one really has the handmade ones from the Cree.”