Traditional Wooden Snowshoe Classes Again Offered for 2005

Chuck Nelson, the director of the Sarett Nature Center, located in Benton Harbor Indiana, will once again be offering classes on building traditional wooden snowshoes in the style of the Ojibwa tribe. Mr. Nelson has been teaching how to handcraft snowshoes for 25 years. His class, held on four consecutive Tuesdays, will begin the first week of November at the center.

Unlike the first oval snowshoes, commonly known as the bear paw, and the teardrop shape of the Maine or Michigan snowshoe, the Ojibwa design has a tail, and a tip which rises up like a boat's bow through a wave. "In the Midwest, you get melting and freezing conditions and the snow is awful," Nelson explains. "There was nothing to keep the snowshoe from going under the ice and blam! You would be thrown to the ground."

The building process starts with two pieces of white ash, each 55 inches long. After the wood is plucked from the boiler, the pieces are placed in a bending jig. This wood contraption holds the pieces in place, creating the shape that becomes the frame. Rivets in front and back and two cross-pieces of support wood in the middle complete the framework. Participants will then take this home for sanding and staining before starting the intricate weaving of the babiche, or webbing. The toe and heel take 16 feet of flat white nylon tubing, while the body takes another 60 feet. While the Ojibwa used rawhide for the babiche, Nelson uses nylon, which shrinks in water. Nelson explains that, "If you take it in the shower with you, that nylon tightens right up." After it is tightened, the nylon is varnished to seal it from moisture. Bindings are then created from the rubber of inner tubes.