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PIROGUE

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African piroque

PIROGUE. Pirogue, in its simplest form, is a dugout made from one log, but also a number of more elaborately fashioned boats, including various native canoes which generally resemble a dugout.

The pirogue is widely distributed and may be found as a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Mexico; as a shallow-draft boat used to maneuver through Louisiana swamplands; and as a boat used by the Indians of Guyana. Pirogues may be broadened by constructing them from two curved pieces or deepened by attaching planks to their sides.

Piroque found in the Mississippi River in 1935.

Native Americans who usually used the much lighter canoe, used softwood when making a pirogue because they used only simple tools. Soldiers stationed in along the MISSISSIPPI RIVER could use harder woods, even walnut, and the workmanship was finer.

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Source:

"Mississippi Bares Another Secret," Telegraph-Herald, October 6, 1935, p. 12