You don’t have to spend too much time in a canoe on a windy day before you figure out wind can be your friend or your enemy. Even non-sailors like my self have learned to run up a rain coat when the wind was going my way. The indigenous people of North America relied heavily on canoes for transportation and I’m sure they ran up a hide when it made things easier. On inland waterways SOF (both hide and bark) were most widely used because of easy build, repair and moving between waterways. It’s hard to believe that they didn’t have some type of sail awareness. ;-)
Gary

Here's another indegenous canoe from southern Australia the melbourne area. Dates from 1850's, a 'transitional' piece in that the bark was cut with a steel axe and the canoe of Mountain Ash bark is reinforced with 3 iron barrel hoops. Mountain Ash doesn't grow within 140 or so river miles from where it was found. There are only 2 or 3 examples of this sort of craft in existence and all of them exist today as a product of serendippity. The Melbourne area before white settlement was a sort of swampy paradise with lagoons and creeks, rich in fish, turtles and plant foods and canoes like this were made when needed and then discarded.

Here's Jeff's photo....

Hi all, here's another link from Gavin Atkins' site (http://intheboatshed.net/)
Orchid Island (or Lanyu in Chinese) off Taiwan. Traditionally built and decorated sea-going canoes of great beauty and surprisingly reminiscent of Faerings. Form following function I guess. Lots of good pix http://caroschoice.blogspot.com/2008/07/orchid-island.html

And here should be a sweetener

Hi canoe sailors. If you are interested in watching how a native birch bark canoe is built, go to the link below.
No spoken words, simply visual with nature's sound, some kids speaking together, few words from Cesar himself to them; they speak Attikamekw. Originaly from Manawan located in Northern Quebec, Canada. The Movie is awesome and titled: ''Cesar's Birch bark Canoe'', 58 minutes. This is hopefully available free to all region, but for those interested in purchasing, it is possible, simply find the purchase shop online.
http://www.onf.ca/film/Cesars_Bark_Canoe/