Tomol
A sewn-plank ocean-going canoe built without internal ribs or frame, constructed from split redwood driftwood planks drilled, sewn together with plant-fiber cordage, and waterproofed with yop (a mixture of pine pitch and natural asphaltum) — among the oldest and most technologically advanced watercraft traditions in pre-contact North America, historically overseen by a dedicated builders' guild and revived after a documented gap of nearly 150 years.
Risk level: Extinct — Revival Exists · Not Applicable — the United States is not a State Party to the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage; no US technique can be formally ICH-inscribed regardless of significance.
The design and hand-fabrication of water-resistant earrings and bangles from recycled newspaper and cardboard by American designer Luda, working under the name Alla Maude in Long Beach, New York, part of the same wider international…
Dolls hand-formed from dried corn husks, deliberately made without a face, taught to children alongside a Three Sisters origin legend warning against vanity and self-regard — a distinct and openly shared craft, separate from any restricted…
The cutting, drilling, and stringing of white and purple beads from quahog clam and whelk shell into belts and strings that serve as the Haudenosaunee Confederacy's living historical, legal, and diplomatic record, predating and central to…
A distinctive Northwest Coast woodworking technique in which a single cedar plank is precisely kerfed (grooved) at three corners, steamed until pliable, and bent into a rectangular, watertight box with only one seam requiring fastening — a…
A fine twined basketry and matting tradition using split spruce root and pounded cedar bark, producing tightly woven baskets, hats, mats, and clothing elements historically watertight enough to hold liquids, decorated with false-embroidery…
A twining-dominant basketry tradition shared by the Yurok, Karuk, Hupa, and related peoples of the Klamath and Trinity River basins, distinguished by a single-sided 'half-twist' overlay technique in which a decorative material is woven…
The lepa is the traditional boat of the Sama-Bajau of Semporna, Sabah.
The Perahu Payang is the traditional Malay fishing vessel of the Terengganu coast — a double-ended wooden boat with a distinctive high prow and stern, decorated with carved and painted geometric patterns, built entirely by hand using adze…
Carvel and clinker planked wooden vessel construction in oak and pine, with adze-worked keels, steam-bent frames, and cotton-caulked seams.
The carving of single-tree-trunk dugout canoes (kanawa) from the gommier tree (Dacryodes excelsa / Dacryodes hexandra) by Kalinago master builders of Dominica's Kalinago Territory.
The Tao tatala is one of the most extraordinary craft objects in the Pacific — an outrigger fishing canoe assembled from 27 individually carved wooden planks joined without nails or caulking, held together only by wooden pins and the…
The hand-construction of traditional wooden dhows -- collectively called boom -- by the Al-Qallaf family and other shipwrights recognized by this hereditary craft surname (qallaleef), sustained today at the workshop of Diwaniyat…