Indians in New France Native Americans used canoes for efficient transportation. Heavy furs, for example, were carried long distances from remote trapping regions to trading posts in canoes. This seventeenth-century drawing from New France illustrates Native Americans’ skills in handling a canoe, in this case by standing up while netting and spearing fish. The figure on the right appears to be playing a flute, perhaps to attract fish. De Agostini Picture Library/The Bridgeman Art Library.