Each Aboriginal people makes their own snowshoes and they are all very different. The lattice can be made of strips of leather, branches or animal skins. The size of the snowshoes varies depending on the type of snow (thick, powdery), the type of terrain (frozen lakes, forests, mountains) and the activity (such as hunting or exploration). These snowshoes are sometimes named after animals based on their shape, such as the beaver tail, the porcupine tail, the swallow tail and the bear paw.
The Innu have always had great respect for snowshoes, since they helped them hunt to feed their families in the winter. The frame of the beaver tail snowshoes was made of two pieces of birch or spruce wood. The lattice was made of strips of stretched wet caribou skin, called babiche. These snowshoes were perfect for walking in light, powdery snow.