因为独木舟的重要作用在北美大陆的沉降,这艘船也经常引用的歌曲,诗歌和绘画。特别是,亨利·沃兹沃思·朗费罗强调的重要性独木舟在关闭他的美国原住民文化史诗《海华沙之歌。”As the poem ends, Hiawatha accepts Christian missionaries and launches his birch bark canoe into the Western sunset to depart forever.
有两种理论推导的术语“独木舟”。Some claim that the word is of Arawakan origin. Originally spelled canoa, the word was later Anglicized as "canoe." Another theory posits that the term is derived from the word kenu or kanu which means "dugout" [source:营]。