Chippewa Birch Bark Gathering: June Felling onto the Stump, One Long Cut, Sheets Tied in Packs of 100 (Densmore, 1928)

"It was customary to gather as much bark as possible in June or early in July as the bark is more easily removed at that season."

Pick a straight birch with smooth bark. Mrs. Razer's, from the middle of a large grove, was 38 ft (11.6 m) long, 27 in. (69 cm) round at the ground and about 25 years old. Heavy bark from big trees is for canoes; lighter bark for utensils, containers and roofs. Watch the upper branches: their bark is often clear when the trunk is scarred.

She first offered tobacco to the cardinal points and the zenith and buried it at the foot of the tree. Cut about 28 in. (71 cm) above the ground, all the chopping on one side, so the tree comes to rest on its stump and the bark is not dirtied on the ground.

Make one cut along the trunk. Turn the bark back with the left hand, pass it under the trunk and take it off with the right. Cut the strips as wide as the job needs, on average about 24 in. (61 cm). Ours: a knife for the cut.

Make utensils at once if you like. Tie the rest in thick packs of about 100 sheets with strips of fresh basswood bark, carry them by a strap and store them. To unroll a sheet later, warm it at a fire: it goes pliable and keeps whatever shape it is given.

From Frances Densmore, *Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians*, **44th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology** (1928), pp. 386-388 (checked on the archive.org scan usesofplantsbych00dens). In old times families camped by the trees; an elder thanked the spirit of the trees and woods, asked for protection, offered tobacco and a pipe, and a feast followed before the cutting. The felled tree was left to dry for firewood. The knife and the metric figures are ours.