Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoes

Carved this 16 foot long interior Plateau sharp bow and stern style dugout canoe during the spring and summer of 2020 with final refinements and embellishments to be completed in fall 2021.

Price: $1,500 per foot length of the canoe

Video Spokane Public School student with ties to Spokane Tribe building canoe

Video IndigeSpirit Highlight: Shawn Brigman

Video Carving a Canoe from a Single Cedar Tree

Chose the stump end of the cedar log for the bow (front) of the canoe so that the canoe would be balanced when solo paddled from the stern (rear). Otherwise the canoe would be popping wheelies on the water. Then triangulated this functional decision to multiple sources by speaking with Plateau knowledge holders and elders, historical photo analysis, as well as a thorough research literature review of northwest canoes:

For example, Olsen (1936) stated “The butt end of the log was always used for the bow of the canoe for the reason that the wood of that portion has a higher specific gravity. When only one [person] is in the canoe it manages much more easily if the bow is relatively heavy. The canoe swings less easily with each stroke of the paddle than if the bow is light and rises out of the water(pg. 69).”

“River canoes were stout and sturdy, with thick bottoms which would not soon wear through or split when being poled or dragged over gravelly beds (pg. 67-68).”

“...effects of the sun frequently caused the canoes to crack...They were commonly covered with [tule] mats to protect them from the suns rays (pg. 70).”

VIDEO: Northwest Profiles: The Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe

Price: $1,000 per foot length of the bark sturgeon-nose canoe

This canoe frame was sculpted in the winter of 2018 and bark attached in spring 2019. Bark canoe is 16 foot long.

Price: $1,000 per foot length of the bark sturgeon-nose canoe

Canoe length is 16 foot

Price: $1,000 per foot length of the canoe. The length of the bark sturgeon-nose canoe is 16 feet.

August 2017, completed all natural western white pine bark canoe with a birch bark apron sewn along the top edge. Historically, norther Plateau^ ancestors were using birch bark as an extender if the circumference of the western white pine tree bark was not wide enough to reach from gunnal to gunnal (hand rail to hand rail). Awakening to this by walking it.

Materials Used: Western white pine bark hull with birch bark apron, red cedar stringers, interior rocky mountain maple sapling ribs, bitter cherry bark ties, split root ties, pine pitch/bear fat.

Dimensions: 16 foot length, 3 foot width, 12 to 17 inch height.

Weight: 150 lbs.

Price: $1,000 per foot length of the canoe. The length of the bark sturgeon-nose canoe is 16 feet.

This canoe frame was hand split and crafted in the summer of 2012, at which point it was put into storage until 2018. The bark cover was harvested and attached in June of 2018.

Materials Used: Western white pine bark hull, red cedar stringers, interior rocky mountain maple sapling ribs, exterior jack pine root ribs, bitter cherry bark ties, split root ties, pine pitch/bear fat.

Dimensions: 16 foot length, 3 foot width, 12 to 17 inch height.

Weight: 150 lbs.

VIDEO: Northwest Profiles: The Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe

Price: $500 per foot length of the canoe. Canoe length is 16 foot.

Materials Used: Western red cedar stringers, rocky mountain maple saplings (ribs), artificial sinew ties, ballistic nylon skin, polyurethane water proofing, blue pigment.

Dimensions: 16 foot length, 3 foot width, 12 inch height at center, 17 inch height towards ends.

Weight: Less than 40 lbs.

Spokesman Review Link: Local creatives get a boost from Spokane Arts Grant

"Water Is Life" (xʷlxilt ɫu sewɫkʷ)

Eight winners were selected from over 70 applicants during the first round of the Spokane Arts Grants Awards (SAGA). From March 29th to April 4, 2017 the sewing of the canoe frame was completed in the Community Building lobby on Main Street in downtown Spokane as an increased visual literacy awareness opportunity for Plateau arts in the city of Spokane. As functional art, this Spokane water is life themed canoe will be shared with community members on ancestral waters during the summer warm weather month from May to August.

This unique “Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe” frame assemblage and skin attachment methodology was founded and established in 2013 by Shawn Brigman Ph.D., and is widely known and recognized across the Plateau. Shawn often gives presentations or lectures on this sculptural form and to date he has sculpted over 30 of these canoes. The Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe design has been commissioned as art installations, and for youth and cultural programs across the Plateau culture region of British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.

Materials Used: Western red cedar stringers, rocky mountain maple saplings (ribs), artificial sinew ties, ballistic nylon skin, polyurethane water proofing, burnt umber pigment.

Dimensions: 16 foot length, 3 foot width, 12 inch height at center, 17 inch height towards ends.

Weight: Less than 40 lbs.

Canoe Featured:
One Heart Native Arts and Film Festival
Inaugural Indigenous Peoples Day City of Spokane
Video: Nk'wu Nation honors Indigenous Peoples' Day

Spokane Water Is Life Prayer Gathering

A sturgeon in the built environment fabric of the city of Spokane. "Indigenizing the Built Environment" of Spokane since 2005. This is the signature "Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe" design that safely delivered water protectors to the front water lines of Standing Rock North Dakota as they paddled the Missouri River to the Cannonball River.

This unique “Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe” frame assemblage and skin attachment methodology was founded and established in 2013 by Shawn Brigman Ph.D., and is widely known and recognized across the Plateau. Shawn often gives presentations or lectures on this sculptural form and to date he has sculpted over 30 of these canoes. The Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe design has been commissioned as art installations, and for youth and cultural programs across the Plateau culture region of British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.
 

Link: Qhest Life Gathering 2016

Materials Used: Tule reeds, hemp twine, willow branch secondary support structure, lodge pole pine.

Dimensions: Total length from end to end, 24 feet. Total width, 14 feet with an 11 foot height. The middle straight portion of the longhouse was 10 foot length. A total of 30 lodge poles were used for this extended structure as well.

Wellpinit Labor Day Powwow 2011

Materials Used: Tule reeds, hemp twine, willow branch secondary support structure, lodge pole pine. 

Dimensions: Total length from end to end, 23 feet. Total width, 15 feet with an 11 foot height. The middle straight portion of the longhous was 8 foot length. The total height from the ground to the top tule mats was 11 foot. The total height from the ground to the very tips of the tipi poles was about 14 feet. A total of 20 tule mats were used for this piece, with each individual tule mat averaging 9 foot long. A total of 34 lodge poles were used for this extended structure as well.

Dimensions: 24' diameter, 11'-8" height, 5' pit depth.

Model (3/32”=1’): Bass wood, balsa wood, tackboard, metal modeling trees

2008 Wellpinit High School

2013 School District #51 Grand Forks, British Columbia

2014 Inchelium Language & Culture Association

The Spokane Tribal Language and Culture department had viewed my conical tule mat lodge displayed the previous summer of 2007 in person and expressed interest in meeting with me as an Indigenous architecture consultant for a new collaborative community project on the Spokane Indian Reservation. The project was identified as a Pit House construction. I was very honored to be asked by the Spokane Tribes Language and Culture department to participate as an Indigenous architecture consultant, as many Spokane knowledge holders are employed by the department to preserve the salish language and culture of the tribe. This was an excellent opportunity for me to serve through my architectural creations. With this new consultant opportunity, a set of working drawings in CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) and a small-scale concept model was hand crafted as visual aids for the tribes language department so as to get a clear picture of the deliverable product. 

Video: the qhest life: "Keep Moving"

For video footage of signature brand of "Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoes" on the water, check out the 16:48, 22:36, and 25:00 minute marks of this recent Outdoor Idaho Episode.

Video Outdoor Idaho: Health of our Lakes

2015 July 20-30

Hnqhesnet Program Coeur d’Alene Tribal Wellness Center – Plummer, Idaho

Dimensions: 16 foot length, 3 foot width.

Weight: Less than 40 lbs.

Ten-day hands-on "Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe" workshop sponsored by the hnqhesnet program with participation by the local community while honoring a traditional mode of transportation. The program ordered four of our signature brand Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoes.

This unique “Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe” frame assemblage and skin attachment methodology was founded and established in 2013 by Shawn Brigman Ph.D., and is widely known and recognized across the Plateau. Shawn often gives presentations or lectures on this sculptural form and to date he has sculpted over 30 of these canoes. The Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe design has been commissioned as art installations, and for youth and cultural programs across the Plateau culture region of British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.

2013

3rd Annual Memorial Day Round Lake Powwow - Inchelium, Washington

Materials Used: Tule mats, lodgepole pine, willow sapling secondary support structure.

Dimensions: Central conical lodge was 19 foot diameter.

The central conical lodge represented the body of the golden eagle, the two shade ramadas on the side reflected the wings of the golden eagle, and the door mat is reflective of the tail of the golden eagle. When you add all these individual pieces back together they transform back into the longhouse.

2013 June 5-7

Materials Used: Tule mats, lodgepole pine, willow sapling secondary support structure.

Dimensions: 15 foot diameter

In June of 2013 I was delighted to be invited as a featured artisan to display a conical tule mat lodge during the three day Aboriginal Youth Conference at Selkirk College in Castlegar, British Columbia. As a direct result of the networking opportunities made available during the conference, discussion arose with staff at Selkirk College about future work involving my traditional recovery arts practice like sturgeon nose canoe forms.

Link: 2013 Aboriginal Youth Conference

Link: 2016 Aboriginal Youth Conference

Price: $500 per foot length of the canoe

2015 May 27-29

Materials Used: Western red cedar stringers, rocky mountain maple saplings (ribs), artificial sinew ties, ballistic nylon skin, polyurethane water proofing, burnt sienna pigment.

Dimensions: 16 foot length, 3 foot width

Commission and three day workshop during the 2015 Aboriginal Youth Conference at the Selkirk College Campus in Nelson, British Columbia. Workshop session celebrated art, materiality, and function as well as the diverse cultural and spiritual significance of the waterways in the region.

All Content © Shawn Brigman. All Rights Reserved.

“Architectural Regalia” sculpted by © Shawn Brigman

Photos by Shelly Boyd

2012 May 25-27

2nd Annual Memorial Day Round Lake Powwow

Materials Used: Tule mats, lodgepole pine, willow sapling secondary support structure.

Dimensions: 28 foot length. 19 foot width. 13'-6" height.

Sponsored by the 2016 Longhouse Education and Cultural Center's Northwest Heritage Program at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. This unique “Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe” frame assemblage and skin attachment methodology was founded and established in 2013 by Shawn Brigman Ph.D., and is widely known and recognized across the Plateau. Shawn often gives presentations or lectures on this sculptural form and to date he has sculpted over 30 of these canoes. The Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe design has been commissioned as art installations, and for youth and cultural programs across the Plateau culture region of British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, and Montana.

”In April and May 2016, I was awarded an artist-in-residence opportunity sponsored by the Longhouse Education and Cultural Center’s Northwest Heritage Program within The Evergreen State College. The program sponsored me in successfully conducting a ten-day hands-on Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe workshop with adult Salish language learners from the Inchelium Language and Culture Association on the Colville Indian Reservation. After completion of a signature brand Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe, the language learners launched the canoe on a nearby lake to float test and paddle (brush the water) the final canoe implement. One month later, this particular canoe then successfully participated in the 2016 Canoe journey to Kettle Falls with seven other signature brand Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoes in honor of salmon recovery. This completed Salishan Sturgeon Nose Canoe further proved its functional, cultural resiliency a couple of months later during a canoe prayer journey when it successfully brushed the water of the Missouri River to Standing Rock, North Dakota with gathered canoes from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.”

Link: Native Artists-in-Residence

Article Link: Lewis and Clark Festival highlights Native culture

2014 June 20-22

Dimensions: 19 foot diameter central conical tule mat lodge. The shade ramadas were 12 foot wide.

Three day exhibition at the 25th Annual Lewis and Clark Festival Native Encampment in Great Falls, Montana.

The central conical lodge is the body of the golden eagle, the two shade ramadas on the side are the wings of the golden eagle, and the door mat is the tail of the golden eagle. When you add all these individual pieces back together they transform back into the longhouse.