Crooked Knife

The Origin of the Crooked Knife

Archaeologists believe that before trade with Europeans, Native people used blades made from beaver teeth in crooked knives.

Native people quickly switched to metal blades as soon as they became available through trade. After the arrival of Europeans, there are many written descriptions of Native people using crooked knives with iron blades.

Native people used crooked knives for whittling and scraping cedar, pine and spruce. Crooked knives were also used for working birchbark and spruce root. They were used everywhere in the forested areas of North America, across Canada and into the northern subarctic forests from Quebec west to Alaska.

At the Junction of Two Worlds

As quickly as Native people switched to iron blades for their crooked knives Europeans adopted the crooked knife for their own. Voyageurs, trappers, traders and soldiers found crooked knives so useful they made them one of their basic tools.

The exchange of ideas also applied to the decorated knife handles. The French fleur de lis, Irish shamrock and Scandinavian floral designs were first used by immigrants and then borrowed by Native artists.

This intertwining of North American and European cultures adds another dimension to crooked knives as they became splendid examples of cultural exchange.