Hello!  My name is Keith Felder.  I was born and raised in Denham Springs, Louisiana about a mile from the Amite River.  I have hunted and fished in south Louisiana all my life and have always been interested in the maritime history of our state.  During the last ten years, I have completed apprenticeships with some of the "master wooden boat builders" in south Louisiana.  Rodney Cheramie of LaRose taught me to build marsh pirogues.  Raymond Sedotal of Pierre Part (who has boats in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.) taught me to build swamp and lumberman pirogues.  Kenny Hebert taught me to build swamp pirogues at the Center for Traditional Boatbuilding at Nichols State University in Thibodeaux.  Wenchelaus Billiot of Isle de Jean Charles at Point au Chien (an elder of the Biloxi-Chitamachas) taught me to build a round bottomed marsh pirogue.  I completed an apprenticeship with Raymond Sedotal on building the Creole rowing skiff.  I also learned to build a strip canoe at the Wooden Boat School in Maine.