Note: traditional Acadian words are in bold and italics

As my sewing studio is now set up, I've been turning my attention to recreating historical Acadian items of clothing, as a tangible connection to my ancestors, and for the sheer practical experiment of understanding how things were made in the past. 

While most of us don't do our own hide tanning anymore, or have ready-access to pelts and leather, I'll still try to source my materials from local hunters and communities, and ask around. I have a friend who attends Inuit amauti workshops and she uses seal fur, so I may be in luck.

Jean-Claude Dupont, in his book Histoire Populaire de l'Acadie, has a section just on the making of various footwear, depending on regions, from Beaubassin, the Magdalen Islands, all the way down to Louisiana. The following is what I've loosely translated from that chapter:

In Beaubassin, they mostly relied on cow hides and a few pelts from the fur trade to make their shoes, or they used wooden clogs to not muck up their leather boots in barns. Thanks to the fur trade pelts many trappers brought through Beaubassin in the 1680s, Acadians were able to trade those for their sought-after commodities from Boston merchant ships. Every man of the household knew how to prepare and tan hides, both from farm animals as well as wild pelts. They'd start by drenching the pelt in alum and salt, and after that treatment, roll it in wood ash. Then, they could scrape off the remaining meat from the pelt with a crooked knife. After the first drying, they'd dip the hide in oil, and let it dry again. (1)

Dosithée Léger, 77 years old in 1973, Robichaud west, New Brunswick. 

Vital Landry of Memramcook, New Brunswick, who was 85 years old in 1967, tanned his hides with alum, salt and bark from the haricot (hemlock tree). Édouard Robichaud of the same village used the same tree bark, but used lime and chicken manure, or charcoal from wood. He then used porpoise oil to treat the hide. 

On the Magdalen Islands, my ancestors were commonly using cod oil, and in the spring, loup-marin oil (that designated any type of local seal to the Madelinot Acadians). 

To sew the boots, makers used linen or hemp thread, coated in brai (a resin substance made from vegetable resins from trees like pine or machequoui (bouleau, birch), sometimes, made with tarry substances). There are three usual designs for Acadian boots of this kind: the canisteaux, the brogannes, and the hausses. 

Canisteaux were often made from either moose, deer or cow hide. They were sometimes called caristeaux in Chéticamp. Either way, it’s always made from the hind leg of the animal. 15 to 20 inches of the hind leg’s shank area were stripped from the leg, and pulled away almost like a big sock off the carcass. The hairs would be kept on, and work on the exterior of the boot for some, or in the interior of the boot for others, to each their preference. The piece would then be stretched and molded to wooden molds for the foot shape. Eel sinew would be used to close the toe ends of the stretched toe box (pictured below):

Brogannes were ankle-length boots that was notched in the front for the closure, whereas Hausses were the same pattern, but mid-calf high, and the notch opening at the back. The same pattern for the foot can be used, and the leg pattern differs. For winter, these boots can also be knee-length, and on the Magdalen Islands, was also made from seal fur. (See below):

Note: pardon the 'sauvages' designation for these boots above.. it's what they're called in the ethnographic Acadian books, and how my ancestors would have called them. These boots very much are a borrowing of First Nations/Inuit cultures, and this language wasn't ok then and it's not ok now.

From my family’s memoirs: Seal hunting and making boots

Seal hunting still remains a staple of some Madelinot families. Obviously, that knowledge is lost in my family, due to us migrating away in the 1920s. Seal hunting techniques were passed on from neighbours and family, and of course, the first Acadians on the islands learned not just through experience, but through the help of the Mi’kmaq and the Inuit. My great-great grandfather Dominique would put on his home-made crampon leather boots to hunt the seals in the pack ice just offshore, with other men from families nearby. The elder sons also took part in this annual hunt. It was a timely way for families to make up the yearly budget, and even if one man did poorly, the profits were always split among all. Men would bring back the pelt and meat, stories of their exploits, and render the fat into really useful oil. Seal oil was also used to fry croxignoles (traditional woven doughnuts) as a springtime delicacy still treasured today. The pelts were either used to make boots and other items, or be sold for a welcomed boost to the family purse. The hunt would usually begin in March. Every year, wives would get anxious as the men were out hunting. It was well-known that a group of men from the same family all drowned one year, and accidents and exposure were not uncommon. My great-great grandmother Anasthasie always had lots of anxiety while Dominique was out hunting, and Angèle remembered those days well. 

The Winter Magdalene Mail of 1910

Many supplies to support a whole family were hard to ship all the way to the islands reliably, especially in the winter. The following saga illustrates just how isolated it gets: On January 2 1910, a storm severed the only telegraph line to the island. Getting desperate, locals sent an empty wooden molasses barrel (ponchon) with letters in the direction of the mainland on Candlemas (Feb.2). It floated 96 kilometres to Cape Breton, taking 10 days to get there. The 125 letters inside traveled through the postal system to Halifax, where the alarm was finally raised on Valentine’s Day. A month later, a steamship arrived on the islands for assistance, and since 1912, the islands finally got the Marconi cable installed. My great-grandmother didn’t have clear memories of that episode, but she did remember the family not being able to have flour, which was a sorely needed necessity that the general store couldn't provide because of this outage. For most families, seal hunting wasn't done out of sheer pleasure, or out of community ties and identity (though it did foster admirable teamwork and social cohesion). It was done, because mainland merchants used their workers’ labour intensively, and barely paid them living wages. They controlled everything that was sold and bought on the islands, and that left many families to winter with a lot of debt. Seals helped us get some relief.

Making Madelinot Boots: My Ancestor's Method

Home-made leather boots with double-leather soles were essential for traversing the ice safely, modelled directly from Inuit and First Nations designs like moccassins and mukluks/maklak. Dominique would start at the end of January to cut and sew the hides for boots. He had kept hides from the slaughtering season in October. He would clean and scrape the cowhides of their hairs, and let them dry on the barn door. After tanning them, he’d dip them in a mix of alder (Verne) dye and very hot water. This made the leather take on a beautiful copper colour. To craft the boots, he’d use an awl to make regular stitch holes, and he’d use a cord that my great-aunt refers to as “Corde de brai” (cord that was dipped into a tarry-like substance). At the end of those cords, he’d add some hog hairs to help with easy lacing. He’d sew the cord with the cross-lace method, to further waterproof the boot seams. He’d waterproof them further with cod liver oil, or if he was lucky, seal oil, as a final tanning step. (P.144) Source: Angèle des Iles, Rita Lapierre-Otis. 

Final Notes

All this to say, I don’t have enough money to get myself a good leather cow hide, or even better, a seal hide, but once I do, you bet it’s a project I’m going to start! Right now, I’m waiting on an early fur trade replica blanket to make myself a traditional Capote. 

I also have the DVD ordered for a documentary about modern-day Magdalen Island Acadians, especially young folks, who are keeping the seal hunt traditions of their ancestors alive. "Chasseurs de Phoques", directed by Nicolas Lévesque. I sadly have yet to find a DVD player to finally watch it. You can purchase your copy here:

https://chasseursdephoques.ca

A chaque fois que j’l’écoute j’m’suis transporter au bord du mer où les sens de mon enfance remplit mon nez et mon esprit. L’océan me manque, mais les sons du banjo et du harmonica me fait un reminder que les coquilles, les bateaux et le mélange spectaculaire d’anglais et français ne sont jamais loin, autant qu’il reste dans mon accent et mon sang acadienne.

Aussi la lyricisme du chanson m’attrape a chaque fois. C’est rien de shakespearien, au fait c’est pas mal simple, mais c’est dans cette simplicité qu’on trouve un amour et passion tellement rare et pur.

En particulier la deuxième vers, où il chante:

Y aurait pas d'ouragans

Qui pourraient m'arracher

De la chaleur de tes lèvres

La douceur de ta bouche

Et aussi la chorus de:

Le monde a bien changé

Je t'aime à tous les jours

J'apprends à vivre mieux

J'apprends à vivre heureux

Je dirait que ces deux extraits sont mes lyriques préférées en toute poésie française. Il y a une acceptation du simplicité dedans qui réfléchit l’esprit communautaire des acadiens d’un manière tellement authentique.