Everything about Travois totally explained
A
travois (
Canadian French, from
French travail, a frame for restraining horses; also obsolete
travoy or
travoise) is a frame used by
Native Americans, notably the
Plains Indians of North America, to drag loads over land. The basic construction consists of a platform or netting mounted on two long poles,
lashed in the shape of an elongated
isosceles triangle; the frame was dragged with the sharply pointed end forward. Sometimes the blunt end of the frame was stabilized by a third pole bound across the two main poles.
The travois was dragged by hand, sometimes fitted with a shoulder harness for more efficient dragging, or dragged by
dogs or horses (after the sixteenth-century introduction of
Mustangs by the Spanish). A travois could either be loaded by piling goods atop the bare frame and tieing them in place, or by first stretching cloth or leather over the frame to hold the load to be dragged.
Although considered more primitive than
wheel-based forms of transport, on the type of territory where the travois was used (forest floors, soft soil, snow,
etc.), rather than roadways, wheels would encounter difficulties which make them a less efficient option. As such they found use in
New France's
fur trade by
Coureurs des bois, who traded notably with the Plains Tribes.
Boy Scouts and similar groups still receive instruction on how to build a travois and it's suggested as a method of transporting a sick or wounded companion when the option of leaving the patient can't be considered. It is possible for a person to transport more weight on a travois than can be carried on the back.
gallery
Image:A skin lodige of the Assiniboin chief 0016v.jpg
Image:Crazy horse c1877.jpg
Image:Kane Fort Edmonton.jpg
Image:Sled north of Ngcobo.jpg|A crude travois-like sled used in modern Africa
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