A movie from the 70s about a wooden indian in a carved canoe takes a journey to the ocean?

As obscure as many of these movies were I always remember this one, a pbs special no doubt, but a little kid carves a wooden indian in a canoe with his dad in fron of the fireplace in the winter. They put it on a snowbank just as the spring thaw beaks and it has a narrated trip to the ocean- one thing I remember most is something they carved on the bottom-if you can read this please put me back in the water-any ideas?