Native American weirs and traps
Native American weirs and traps represent an essential aspect of indigenous fishing and hunting practices across North America. These devices were ingeniously designed to capture a variety of animals and fish with efficiency, reflecting the diverse ecological knowledge of various tribes. Weirs, which are enclosing devices, are typically constructed to trap fish as tides recede, using techniques such as camouflaged pits or wicker fences. Arresting devices, like nets and snares, were employed to entangle or capture animals, while killing devices included traps that triggered upon the animal's movement, leading to its demise.
The complexity of these traps varied among tribes, with specific designs tailored to capture game of certain sizes. Historical evidence suggests that trapping techniques date back thousands of years, with notable structures such as the Boylston Street Fishweir in Boston, estimated to be around 2500 BCE. The introduction of European fur trade further transformed traditional trapping methods, as indigenous peoples adopted more efficient European iron traps to meet the demands of the market. Overall, the craftsmanship and adaptability of Native American weirs and traps highlight their vital role in sustaining communities through hunting and fishing practices.
Subject Terms
Native American weirs and traps
Tribes affected: Pantribal
Significance: Ingenious traps were used throughout North America for capturing fish and animals
Hunting and fishing were labor-intensive activities, but various inventions permitted the capture of animals with less time and effort. All Indian tribes, including agriculturalists, used these devices both before and after contact with Europeans. Their variety in native North America was tremendous, but they can be divided into three classes: enclosing, arresting, and killing devices.
Enclosing devices prevented an animal—who was unharmed— from escaping. Pits, camouflaged with leaf-covered mats and dug into game trails; and wicker fences on mudflats adjoining estuaries, forming enclosures (“weirs”) to trap fish as high tides receded, are examples of enclosing devices.
Arresting devices went one step further, grabbing or entangling an animal. Nets, set between trees to catch birds, or under water to catch fish and aquatic mammals, are one form of this device. Another is the snare, which trapped an animal’s leg in a noose. The Montagnais used an ingenious spiked-wheel trap, a tethered hoop of wood with flexible, sharp rods pointing inward like spokes but not quite meeting. A caribou would step into such a trap and be unable to escape.
Killing devices incorporated some means of killing the prey, as when a weight was released by a trigger tripped by the animal (a deadfall). The Tanaina used a complicated torsion trap in which a striker would be held under tension from twisted rawhide until an animal tripped a trigger, releasing the trap on itself. An ingenious, if rather gruesome, killing device used by the Inuit was a sharpened strip of whale baleen, bent double, encased in animal fat and frozen. Left in a place frequented by bears or wolves, it would be swallowed whole by one of these predators and then suddenly spring open after thawing in the animal’s stomach, killing it from within.
Indian traps often were cleverly designed to catch only game of a predetermined size. The mesh size of fish nets, for example, was determined by the size of the desired catch, since smaller fish could swim through the mesh and larger fish could not insert their heads far enough to become snagged at the gills. Among the Indians of the Atlantic Coast, mesh gauges were used in making nets so that the desired mesh size would be maintained throughout.
Most traps have left few remains that can be studied, so it is difficult to estimate when traps came into use in North America. Net weights, however, indicate that birds or fish probably were netted in most of eastern North America by 3500 b.c.e. Weirs leave distinctive remains, and the Boylston Street Fishweir under the streets of Boston dates from as early as 2500 b.c.e.; other less well-dated weirs may have predated these by as much as three thousand years.
The European fur trade stimulated Indian fur-trapping, and traditional trap technology was inadequate to the task. The older methods gave way to the use of efficient European iron traps.