DCHP-3

mocotaugan

[< Algonk.: Cree]
Obs.
DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

n.

a wood-working knife usually having a crooked handle and, often, a hook at one end of the blade, used widely in the north, especially by the Indians, for making snowshoes, fur stretchers, canoes, and all woodwork. [See picture at crooked knife.]

See: crooked knife(and picture)

Quotations

1716
. . . Baggonetts, Mocotawgons, Sword Blades. . . .
1795
This last was rivetted onto a piece of ivory, so as to form a man's knife, known in Hudson's Bay by the name of Mokeatoggan, and is the only instrument used by them in shaping all their woodwork.
1940
The curved canoe knives, the same articles as are included in a list of 1748 trade goods as mocotaugans.
1957
"Mocotawgons" are the curved knives, still used by the Indians.