A travois (Canadian French, from French travail, a frame for restraining horses;[1] also obsolete travoy or travoise) is a frame used by Native Americans, notably the Plains Indians of North America, to drag loads over land. Canadian French is an Umbrella term for the varieties of the French language used in Canada. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska see also Native Americans in the United States. The Plains Indians are the Indigenous peoples who live on the plains and rolling hills of the Great Plains of North America. The basic construction consists of a platform or netting mounted on two long poles, lashed in the shape of an elongated isosceles triangle; the frame was dragged with the sharply pointed end forward. A triangle is one of the basic Shapes of Geometry: a Polygon with three corners or vertices and three sides or edges which are Line Sometimes the blunt end of the frame was stabilized by a third pole bound across the two main poles.
The travois was dragged by hand, sometimes fitted with a shoulder harness for more efficient dragging, or dragged by dogs or horses (after the sixteenth-century introduction of Mustangs by the Spanish). The dog ( Canis lupus familiaris) is a domesticated Subspecies of the gray wolf, a Mammal of the Canidae family of the order A travois could either be loaded by piling goods atop the bare frame and tying them in place, or by first stretching cloth or leather over the frame to hold the load to be dragged.
Although considered more primitive than wheel-based forms of transport, on the type of territory where the travois was used (forest floors, soft soil, snow, etc. A wheel is a circular device that is capable of rotating on its axis facilitating movement or transportation whilst supporting a load ( Mass) or performing labour in machines ), rather than roadways, wheels would encounter difficulties which make them a less efficient option. As such they found use in New France's fur trade by Coureurs des bois, who traded notably with the Plains Tribes. The Viceroyalty of New France (Nouvelle-France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal Fur. A coureur des bois (runner of the woods was an individual who engaged in the Fur trade without permission from the French authorities
Boy Scouts and similar groups still receive instruction on how to build a travois and it is suggested as a method of transporting a sick or wounded companion when the option of leaving the patient cannot be considered. It is possible for a person to transport more weight on a travois than can be carried on the back.
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A crude travois-like sled used in modern Africa |