The Tapis....Read All About It

The Tapis….Read All About It!

The french word tapis can be translated as carpet, rug, cover, cloth, and when used in conjunction with sled dogs and the tandem collar harness it refers to what is essentially a dog blanket that covers the dog’s back (saddle) and extends on both sides of the body down to the hips, covering part of the flank as well.  The purpose of the tapis is totally cosmetic or for decoration.  It was never intended to serve a useful function such as retaining body heat as a modern day dog coat would.

The tapis was generally only used on festive occasions or special holidays, it was not normally used during every day travel and work with the dog team.  The tapis was usually made of some type of wool fabric such as melton, stroud or duffel although occasionally it was made from a piece of tanned moose or caribou hide and sometimes from a combination of wool fabric and hide.  The tapis was usually decoratively embroidered with bright coloured wool emboidery or covered in intricate and very colourful beadwork.  The designs were almost always floral designs as opposed to geometric shapes.  The tapis, which often had woolen tassels or a fringe  around its full perimeter was often used in conjunction with small bells that were fastened to the leather harness straps or to the tapis itself.  In addition a brightly coloured collar horn made of wool and ribbon was often fastened to the top of the padded tandem harness collar.  There is nothing quite as nostalgically beautiful as a team of Mackenzie River Huskies decked out in this full regalia, moving with their characteristic quick loping stride, pulling a wooden toboggan equipped with a canvas wrapper a backboard and a handlebar.

This look would often be complemented by the musher himself who would be wearing wool leggings with tassels tied at the knees, winter moccasins covered in bead work with duffel liners, an embroidered moose hide parka or a capote made from a wool 4 point HBC blanket.  He would have a big pair of embroidered beaver mitts or gauntlets and would be “topped off” with a fur hat.

What were the origins of the tapis?  The influences are clearly French Canadian which suggests a voyageur influence.  The voyageurs were those canoe men who paddled the 36 foot Montreal canoes from Lachine Quebec  to the Lakehead at Thunder Bay.  Those who chose to spend the winter in “le pays d'en haut” were called “les hivernants” and when they reached the Lakehead they would  transfer the cargo, which consisted of up to 5 tons from just one birch bark Montreal canoe, all packaged in 90 pound bundles, each one referred to as un pièce, to  smaller 26 foot North canoes capable of navigating the whitewater of the smaller northern rivers.  They would then paddle  northward  and westward to the far flung trading posts for which they were carrying the trade goods.   The canoes were brightly painted and decorated.  The designs on the bow and stern were often floral designs, very occasionally geometric (copied from those seen on European trading ships docked on the east coast), sometimes there would be drawings of animals and often symbols of either the Hudson Bay Company or the Northwest Company.  The voyageurs  themselves were almost always  of mixed blood, usually white fur trader fathers and First Nations mothers.  Most came from the small villages located along the St. Lawrence River to the east of Quebec City.  In the fur trade these men were collectively referred to as les Canadiens, they were in fact Métis.  There were also full blooded Iroquois in the boat, they were contract employees noted for their paddling skills.  Once they arrived at their destination, the Iroquois would work as contract trappers for the Hudsons Bay Company while the voyageurs would work as labourers.  These generally were the men who drove the company dog teams.

The voyageurs were generally short in stature, usually no bigger than 5ft. 6inches tall.  They were strong wiry men capable of working hard for 18 hours a day.  They were also quite taken with themselves and would spend their days paddling and telling each other in the canoe just how great they were.  Before coming to a trading post they would pull the canoe into shore, just out of sight of the post.  They would quickly change their clothes, putting on their special beaded or embroidered shirt, often putting feathers into their hats, then they would paddle furiously towards the post, performing un salut (salute) as they got closer and then racing as fast as they could until it looked like they were going to crash into the shore.  On command they would stick their paddles as deep into the water as possible and pull backwards, creating a huge frothing turbulence with spray flying everywhere and the canoe would come to a stop

It was these men who introduced the brightly coloured tapis to dog mushing.  Just as they decorated their canoes in the summer, they also decorated their toboggans/carioles (and their dogs and themselves) in the winter.  The brightly decorated tapis became popular after the established influence of the Roman Catholic Sisters, those nuns who taught school and who introduced the embroidery, beadwork and the floral designs to the women who eventually became married to the voyageurs who settled in the country.  I believe that all of these influences were initially  centred in the Red River area around present day Winnipeg Manitoba and spread out from there.  This is where the necessary Métis and Roman Catholic influences came together.  They then spread throughout the fur trade kingdom of both the Northwest Company and after 1821 the Hudson Bay Company.   To the west they extended  as far as New Caledonia (Fort St. James) and to the north  as far as the Mackenzie River delta (Aklavik, Herschel Island) and along the Arctic coast.  Occasionally, a dog team decked out with tapis still fastened to their tandem harness would make it as far afield as Alaska.

It should also be kept in mind that virtually all of these men as well as the white fur traders who represented the clerks, chief traders and post factors  were familiar with working horses.  I believe that this is the main reason why the use of the paddled collar  (tandem) harness (horse collar) persisted with sled dogs used throughout central and northern Canada until well into the 20th Century.  (As an aside, I believe that this is also the reason why the paddled collar and the tandem harness was popular during the Klondike Gold Rush….the gold seekers were familiar with working horses and they simply transferred their knowledge from horses to sled dogs).  Teamsters were also known for “showing off” their horses and their teams would be decked out with bells and something called Scotch Tops fastened to the top of their brightly polished and very impressive padded horse collars.  The wool and ribbon collar horns used by the dog mushers were really just a scaled down version of these Scotch Tops.

The following excerpts are from a book written by H. Bullock Webster  Memories of Sport and Travel Fifty Years Ago, it was published in 1938 and describes an experience that had occurred 50 years earlier in the late 1800’s.  Bullock Webster was a fur trader employed by the HBC, he was posted to Fort Connolly located on Bear Lake which was located 100+ miles north of Fort St. James.  He was travelling with a couple of First Nations companions to attend the Christmas celebrations at Fort St. James.  Hopefully these excerpts offer some insight into the mindset of the mushers and the role played by the tapis during that era.

“The sleighs were loaded, the dogs harnessed, the bells on their collars jingling, the whips cracked and away we went down the lake -- thirty miles to the next good camping place“

“The Indians donned all the finery they had stored away carefully on the journey just for the occasion--dressed buckskin jackets with beautiful bead and porcupine quill work all over them; buckskin leggings to the thigh, with a broad band of beadwork down the sides, and garters three inches wide of exquisite porcupine quill work embellished with pom-poms of wool of all colours. They had , too, neat embroidered moccasins and a skunk skin cap with a broad band of beads, embroidered mittens and a big Hudson Bay scarlet sash [ceinture flechee….worn by the Metis people who may have been employed by the Hudson’s Bay]”

“I tell you they looked beautiful, and were a credit to the squaws who made the clothes and designed everything with the most primitive tools, the sewing being done with an awl and sinews and the quills dyed with their vegetable dyes”.

“My dress was much the same, except for the orthodox blue stroud leggings to the thigh with scarlet fringe and the white blanket capote or parka [as I think they are called now] with big hood fringed with wolverine and very gorgeous mittens with fur tops, and, of course, the big red sash, which went twice round your waist, with the fringes hanging down the side….”.

 “The arriving at Headquarters is, or was, made a great event. The dogs were made to look their best and the little round bells on their harness polished up with dry snow if you hadn’t anything better. The sleighs were most carefully packed, every lashing had to be in exactly the right place and the load properly distributed. Every detail was criticised by the others there to welcome us”.

“It would take many pages to describe all the good times we had during that fortnight --the meeting of pals from distant forts [Fort Kilmaurs [Babine], Fort George, Fort Mcleod, Fort Alexandria, Fort Fraser, Fort Connolly], the good food kept for the occasion and every native delicacy the North could show, moose nose, cariboo tongue, beaver tail and bear ribs, wild fowl of all sorts and frozen fish of every kind, the white fish and big lake trout. There were dances every night in the big trade room; violins gave the music, the French half-breeds being wonderful players…..We criticised each others’ teams of dogs, did some dealing and swopping and had dog races on the lake and shooting competitions in the woods….”.