What does kayak mean?
Hunters boat. The boats primary purpose was to hunt animals on inland lakes, rivers and the sea. In many places where the native kayakers lived they had to turn to the water for food because the land was not fertile enough to support their population. It was also used for transportation across open water and rivers. Most but not all kayaks are considered seaworthy. It was made of seal skins and wood. The wood was driftwood that was collected off of beaches. Many of the areas where kayaks were paddled are void of the land based raw materials used in making birchbark canoes or dugout canoes. Archaeologists have found evidence indicating kayaks to be at least 4000 years old. The word kayak appears in literature spelled different ways: kyak, kyack, kaiak, qajaq.
