Mallet

Description:

Wooden mallet (somewhat bottle-shaped, consisting of a short, round head (approximately 4″ long and 1.37″ diameter) and a round handle, widened at one end. Made from a single piece of wood.

Innu Narrative:

“This is utamanikan (mallet)? It can be used for making niuanikeits (powdered meat).” Sheshin (Rich) Rich

“What is this? Is this utamanikeask or utamanikant (mallet)? This is what it is called . This is used for hitting the ball.” Pinamen (Rich) Katshinak

Other Info:

MacKenzie lists Utamaikan and utamanikeashkᵘ as “hammer; thing to hit with.”

MacKenzie lists niueikan and niuanikan as “powdered dried caribou meat.”

MacKenzie lists utamaikanashkᵘ as hammer “handle, baseball bat, drum beater.”

During the late summer and fall of 2002, Pien Penashue built a canoe at North West Point near Sheshatshiu. Melvin Penashue and Alistair Pone worked with him as apprentices. Having cut lengths of white spruce from which canoe planks and ribs would be fashioned, the spruce logs were split open and thin planking made using wooden wedges. These wedges were hammered into the logs using wooden mallets made from white or black spruce, or an axe. Pien’s preference was to hammer the wedges using the mallets because axes broke up the ends of the wedges too quickly. Pien used the word tamaikan for mallet.  Peter Armitage note.