One of America’s last remaining Native birchbark canoe builders is constructing an elaborate 16-foot hunting boat at Northwestern: ‘We don’t just take, we give back.’

Normally, he would be using the root to sew a traditional Ojibwe canoe, but, for the moment, he is making a point: The root is actually quite fragile. With a few tugs, he snaps it into pieces. He reaches for a scrap of another key canoe-building material, birch bark, and tears it with ease. He grabs a stray chunk of cedar, the wood used for the canoe’s frame, and casually splits it in two with a loud “Thwack!”