In its human-powered form, the canoe is ordinarily propelled by the use of paddles, with the number of paddlers (most commonly two) dependent on the size of the canoe. Paddlers face in the direction of travel, either seated on supports in the hull, or kneeling directly upon the hull. Paddling can be contrasted with rowing, where the rowers usually face away from the direction of travel and use mounted oars (though a wide canoe can be fitted with oarlocks and rowed). Paddles may be single-bladed or double-bladed.

However, there is an ancient and rich diversity in canoe shapes, construction and purpose, a knowledge that Native builders have refined over the past centuries.  Some canoes were elegantly carved and formed from the massive trees of the northern Pacific coast for trade, war and for hunting the great whales.  Other builders carved smaller canoes, well suited for travelling rivers, creeks and small waterways.  In the harsh treeless Arctic landscape, the generosity of the ocean and rivers provided Inuit builders with animals and driftwood, from which they perfected the seaworthy shapes of their covered hunting craft. 

Many indigenous peoples of the Americas built canoes of tree bark, sewn with tree roots and sealed with resin. The indigenous people of the Amazon commonly used Hymenaea trees. In temperate North America, white cedar was used for the frame and bark of the Paper Birch for the exterior, with charcoal and fats mixed into the resin.

Throughout much of the rest of North America, the rind of the White Birch tree helped Native builders to overcome the challenges of overland and coastal travel.  Builders of bark canoes removed the supple skin from these trees, tailored them into carefully proportioned vessels of their own traditions, and lined the entire craft with a lightweight wooden frame.  In a land crisscrossed by a myriad of rivers and creeks, the birch bark canoe provided the traveler with a craft that could carry a great load, was light enough to be carried as the need arose, and which could manage the rigors of early travel. 

Traditional bark canoes have served as prototypes for many of the wood and canvas, wood-strip, fiberglass, aluminum and other canoes that have largely replaced them in the modern world.

North American Indians are responsible for creating the more well-known version of the canoe - a frame of wooden ribs covered with the lightweight bark of birch trees, and sometimes elm or cedar trees. These boats, which have remained virtually unchanged in design for thousands of years, proved to be ideal for travelling the numerous streams, rivers and lakes of North America.

Birch bark was the perfect choice to build canoes because, not only was it lightweight and smooth, but it was also waterproof and resilient. As well, the birch tree was found in almost every area of Canada, except for the western subarctic region, where spruce bark had to fill in as a substitute. The joints of the canoes were held together by the root of the white pine and then made waterproof by applying hot pine or spruce resin.

Birch bark canoes are most commonly associated with Native Americans of northern New England regions, but were probably produced where ever the birch tree grew to sufficient diameter. Ideal for travel on the network of lakes and often turbulent rivers that stretch across the northern part of the North American continent, these portable watercraft were used by First Peoples throughout the eastern and southern United States and in all the provinces and territories of Canada.

The canoes were quite strong, and although susceptible to damage from rocks, could carry large loads in very shallow water. They were easily maneuvered by one person with a single-blade paddle and therefore ideal for the fast streams and frequent shoal waters found in the woodland areas. Some, specially built, were sturdy enough for the rough waters of the bays along the Atlantic coast. These canoes ranged in length between 10 and 24 feet.

Larger canoes required an amazing amount of work, although all the materials were readily available from the surroundings. The task involves: gathering the bark and root lashings, carving the manboards and laminating the prowpieces, bending and lashing the gunwales and inserting the hand-carved thwarts, stitching up the seams and gores, ripping and laying the cedar planking, bending and inserting the 30 or more ribs, and caulking the seams and holes with pine gum, and finally decorating by etching or painting the bark.

Smaller birch bark or spruce bark canoes for hunting or warring parties could be made more expediently, being built for only one or two men. There was no planking or elaborate prowpiece in small canoes. The small canoes were not as durable nor as intricate as larger bark canoes, but with proper storage the little canoes could last five years or longer.

Bark canoes could be stored in two ways: either kept from excessive light and moisture (elevated upside-down in the shade under a cover), or completely submerged in a lake or pond with rocks used as weights.

Dugout canoes, chopped and carved out of tree-trunks, have been used at one time or another by many of the First Peoples. However, it was on the Pacific Coast, where builders had access to giant red cedars, that dugouts were developed to their highest levels of performance and beauty. Dugouts from this area have displayed considerable variations in style as well as in size, ranging from small fishing and sealing craft to large seagoing vessels that carried whalers beyond the sight of land.

Dugout canoes were often hollowed out by burning them with controlled fires and then removing the charred wood with an adze. Another technique was to chop notches across the inside width of the canoe and then split out the wood between the notches, repeating the whole process until the desired depth was achieved. In more recent times, chain-saws have been used to eliminate the laborious chopping of notches as well as to rough out the exterior shape of the hull. Seagoing canoes of the Pacific Coast were often widened through soaking the hull with hot water and spreading the gunwales apart.

River dugouts were used on lakes and rivers by various groups across the country. Made from a variety of trees, including cottonwood and pine, they were simpler in design and cruder in construction than the great seagoing canoes of the Pacific Coast. However, some of the larger models were capable of carrying a substantial weight. These Canoe performance qualities were soon recognized by early European immigrants, who adopted and copied bark canoes for their own purposes, such as exploration and expansion of the fur trade.

As soon as European explorers came to North America, they found canoes quite handy and started using them. In fact, the Europeans were amazed with the advanced engineering skills that the Native Americans used to design sophisticated canoes. Instead of hollowed out logs, these canoes were framed and constructed of multiple types of wood and held together with glue made from trees. In 1603, Samuel de Champlain was the first explorer to record the dimensions of Native American canoes. He wrote that they measured up to 23 feet (7 meter), to a 50 inch (1.27 meter) beam, and carried as much as 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms) of cargo. The French used the canoe to establish the fur trade and further explore what we now call Canada and the mainland United States.

Early 18th-century commercial interests demanded that Europeans venture deeper into the North American continent, where they discovered extensive Aboriginal trade networks already in place along established canoe routes.  Moreover, they found that their own heavy boats were not suitable for plying the lakes, rivers and portages.  Knowledgeable river guides and canoe builders were engaged to support their own expanding trade relations.  Perhaps the most celebrated figure of this early commerce was the voyageur: that colorful paddler who remains enshrined beside the birch bark canoe in Canadian folklore today.  By the late eighteenth century, large bark canoes paddled by voyageurs and used for distance transport had connected the businesses of the St. Lawrence valley with the Mississippi, as well as the western and northern reaches of the continent. 

As the commerce of early North America grew, so did the need for canoes. The fur trade became so large, in fact, that the French set up the world's first known canoe factory at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, around the year 1750. Many of the canoes that fur traders used were capable of carrying a crew of up to 12 people and a cargo weighing around 2400 kilograms.