It was built from info about the "Caddo Lake Batteau" which I'd call a plank pirogue. "Pirogue" the word, used to mean "dugout canoe", starting out several centuries ago as a carribean indian tribe's word that got spelled "periaugua" and "perriauger", etc. Planks nailed together in the same shape as the dugout were a handy to use boat, longer lasting than a log and quicker to build. After a time, no one made dugouts any more and cajuns quit differentiating between planked and chopped out versions of the same boat.   

It was in common use soon after saw mills started up in the bayou country, and died out with the common use of outboard skiffs. There's about $100 worth of varnish and lumberyard 1X12's sixteen feet long. I've had a lot of fun with it, and am going to use these same traditional methods this spring to build a rowing skiff, for re-enacting history on the water. With the extra two boards, and oak framing the skiff may cost me $150, and a few weekends in the shop ;^)

Jeff Smith