Dan Emmett with one of the two Birch-bark canoes he made for Delano and Muriel Stevenson around 1917. Photograph taken in 1952.
Courtesy of Kinsley Whittum.Born: December 29, 1871

Died: 1953

Married: Adelaide Benedict

Children:

Dan J. Emmett, also known as Daniel Wasamimet, was an Abenaki guide who spent summers from 1909 until his death in 1953 near Hiawatha Lodge on Stony Creek Ponds.  He built birchbark canoes and sold canoes and native American crafts from an encampment near Coreys Road.  One of his canoes, built around 1928 for Anna and Avery Rockefeller, was used only on Ampersand Lake; it was donated to the Adirondack Museum in 1990.

And according to this account, he taught the famous hermit Noah John Rondeau his woodcraft.

See Native Americans.

Dan Wasamimet Emmett of the St. Regis Tribe standing next to a packbasket he made, c. 1940.
Courtesy of the Adirondack ExperienceTupper Lake Herald, July 24, 1914

Dan Emmett working on a canoe, c. 1950
Courtesy of the Adirondack ExperienceDan Emmett, the Indian basket maker is at his old camp near Hiawatha Lodge. Jokes are sometimes heard about Irish Indians, but although Dan has a Celtic name, he is an Indian with an inherited talent for making baskets and other beautiful articles. He has been coming here for several years now, and is very popular, with the summer people.

Tupper Lake Herald & Adirondack Mt Press, June 24, 1929.

COREYS

D. J. Emmett of Odanak, Quebec, our basketmaker, is back at Coreys using a crutch. His leg was broken last fall, when he was struck by an automobile.

Essex County Republican, August 1, 1947

From a letter to the editor by famed hermit Noah John Rondeau, who credited Emmett with teaching him woodcraft:

...And at Coreys, we stopped for a brief visit with Mr. Dan Emmett. Mr. Emmett is French and Indian decent—is 77 years old and comes from an Indian Reservation in Canada; and for 37 years he has had a canvas set up at Coreys, where he makes baskets, balsam pillows, and many are the ornamental and useful things that he makes from ash splints, birch bark and sweet grass.

And Mr. Emmett has limited English and splendid French vocabulary. He is courteous, honest and modest; and he has unique refinement of his style.

And for 37 years, he has enjoyed utmost respect and confidence of natives and tourist about Upper Saranac Lake and where ever he goes.

His friendship and esteem of others is 100 per cent loyal.

Many have followed him to his remote hunting grounds in the wilds of Canada— and in turn they have taken him on their ranches in southern states and entertained him all winter.

And whatever the depth, or the height, like Madam Curie, he never loses his head.

He is 99 per cent poor, 100 per cent worthy; and without office or price he has unchangeable perfect quality...

Christopher Angus, The Extraordinary Adirondack Journey of Clarence Petty, pp. 23, 23 

One of these [native Americans] was Dan Emmett, an Abenaki Indian who made birch bark canoes and sold them to camp owners. "He was the only Indian I really had contact with," recalls Clarence.

His face was just like the Indian on the nickel. He was a big guy, about 230 pounds, and he stood straight as a ram. His first camp was over by the Rustic Lodge golf course. He was a jolly fellow, and he'd stick his head out when my brother and I went by and say, "How much money did you make today?" He'd give us little sweet grass baskets that he made.

Dan would cut black ash that he found in the swamp and carry it back to camp. Then he'd take a wooden mallet to it, and he'd hammer on it to separate the spring wood from the summer wood, and that's what he peeled off and used for his pack baskets. I can still hear that sound, echoing over to our house, bang, bang, bang. He also used it for the ribs in his canoes. He'd take the hammered wood down to the pond in front of Hiawatha Lodge, put stones on it, and leave it underwater for two or three weeks, until it got well soaked. Then he'd bring it up and form it into the ribs for his canoes and pack baskets. He could bend it in any direction.

Indian Dan, as he was called, spent the winters in Canada at a little village on the St. Lawrence near Sorel, Quebec. His birch bark canoes, along with his services as a guide, were highly sought after by well-todo camp owners such as the Rockefellers. Emmett is mentioned in Noah John Rondeau's diary and may have been instrumental in teaching the famous Adirondack hermit some of his woodcraft.

 

Melissa Otis, Rural Indigenousness: A History of Iroquoian and Algonquian Peoples of the Adirondacks, pp. 186-7, Syracuse University Press, 2018

...Other craftspeople set up their own enterprise in various forms and expected people to come to them. For example, Abenaki Daniel Emmett, or Wasamimet (c. 1870-1952?), set up a tent under a crab apple tree at Coreys for the season. He chose this space because it was near the water, which he needed to make his canoes from local birch trees, and he carefully chose trees without knots. The late Clarence Petty, who as a boy met Daniel Emmett in 1911 or shortly thereafter recalled Dan arriving at the landing on the Upper Saranac with has baskets and balsam pillows from Odanak and, possibly, Akwesasne to sell. He had so many sweetgrass baskets that Petty recalled Emmett being "steeped in sweetgrass." Emmett traveled to the region and marketed his wares for so long that in the beginning he transported his goods from the landing to Coreys by horse and wagon; as times changed he got them there by automobile. Petty remembered that sometimes women or young men accompanied Emmett or came to help him, pack up and go home. Often he lived by himself in the tent but sometimes he had visitors. Emmett was also a member of and usher at the nearby Indian Carry Chapel.

Emmett was best known for the canoes he made. He used the tanned hide from a moose he had killed in Quebec the previous autumn to tie parts of the canoe together. He submerged the bark in the water to begin the process and finished by melting spruce pitch to pour onto the seams to prevent leakage. Emmett made at least three canoes every season. He also made pack-baskets and ash splint baskets from local trees. In addition, he repaired moccasins and guide boats. Sometimes called "Indian Dan” by locals and tourists, Emmett expected customers to come to him to purchase his wares. He did not dress any differently than the locals or his customers to market his products. If he still had merchandise left by the end of the season, Emmett packed it into a canoe and sold it at hotels in Axton or Long Lake. Petty recalled that it was quite a sight to see Emmert and a couple of young men, probably Abenaki, paddling birchbark canoes down the river loaded with the remaining baskets and souvenirs. Daniel Emmett returned to Quebec for the rest of the year and guided hunters, some of whom were his Adirondack customers. Wealthy families such as the Rockefellers, were fond of him and purchased his canoes and goods.

 

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