How to make a bootaagan

I used to help my uncle when he made a bootaagan. I held it for him. He cut a log, then sawed it straight. Then he pointed one end and carved some wooden pieces, pointing them so they'd fit well and make the bootaagan round. When he was through carving them, he dug a pit and put grass in it. It was long grass that he put in it. Then he put in a willow strip bent into a circle. He pressed the grass down. Then he fitted the boards together in it again. I held them as I watched him. After he got done fitting in those things, the pieces of carved cedar, he tapped in the round piece of log. He tapped it in there. It looked just like a pail. He formed the boards into a circle. Then he put in the willow strips. It held then. It was round. No sand could get in there...

from

Maude Kegg, Portage Lake: Memories of an Ojibwe Childhood, ed. John D. Nichols (Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 1991), 123.