Bull boat

[citation needed] When the traders of Hudson's Bay Company first visited the Nueta in 1790 they found that tribe possessed tublike boats with a framework of willow poles, covered with raw buffalo hides.

[1] These larger boats required joining the buffalo hides with waterproof seams, a technique not used by the American Indians.

A bull boat's framework was made of willow branches bent in a huge bowl shape about four feet across the top and eighteen inches deep.

Then the skin, when green [fresh, that is, not tanned] is drawn tight over the frame and fastened with thongs to the brim, or outer hoop, so as to form a perfect basin.

Their common design is so widespread because it is easy to make using materials readily available since the Stone Age—wood, animal hide, etc.—and very sturdy and effective.