The Kutenai, not known to be linguistically related to any other tribe, occupy portions of southeastern British Columbia, northern Idaho, and northwestern Montana. In this region of blue, mountain-girded lakes and majestic rivers, they very naturally made use of canoes. The commoner form was the pine-bark craft, but occasionally they made canoes by stretching fresh elk hides over a framework of fir strips or tough saplings.(Native Nations, p. 50)