Brain Tanning Buffalo Hides: page 5

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Contents
Introduction
Native American Use
Getting Ready to Tan
Fleshing, Thinning, Braining
Softening
Smoking & Conclusion

Braining and Pulling the Hide

To continue the tanning process, I take my dried hide out of storage and cut it in half along the spine. These so-called "split robes" were common among native people. Again Boller writes, that after the tanning: "the two sides are then sewed together with sinew and the robe is ready to be traded." This splitting technique came either from the way they skinned the animal or for the ease of tanning smaller sections because a big hide might have to be handled by more people. Marquis writes about the Crow: "In the original butchering of the animal, after one side was skinned, the hump was cut of. This was necessary in order to roll the carcass for skinning the other side", (as a shot buffalo usually died on its belly). According to Harold E. Briggs' "Frontiers of the Northwest": "one squaw was capable of preparing ten (buffalo) robes in a season. Although two or more worked together on heavier ones." This tailoring process of cutting hides in halves also helps reduce the size of the finished product. (editor's note: it also gets rid of the hump and backbone sections of the hide....the hardest areas to get soft. Native people were smart!).

Markus softening half of a buffalo
hide using a metal strap.

Of course whole hides were used as well and were in high esteem. Marquis writes : "A head and tail buffalo robe, that is an entire robe of one piece and in good order, had a standard price of five dollars in goods. An extra good article would be higher.A split robe, one made up by the sewing of segments, was salable at a valuation lower than that of the full head and tail robe." One reason to keep the hide whole (leaving legs, tail and head attached) was, that the skin was seen as inheriting the spirit of the animal in its completeness.

Tanner Jim Miller for example does not cut his robes and does his entire tanning with the hide laced in the frame for the entire process. Other tailoring methods include attaching the skin of the front legs to the neck of the main body to maximize size or taking out sections of the head and hump area to make the hide lie flat. For images of robes displaying these techniques I refer to "Robes of Splendor -North American Painted Buffalo Hides" by New York Press .

Having cut the hide in half, (I now work one half at a time) I spread another application of tanning solution onto it and then fold it up flesh side on flesh side and cover it with a plywood board. Then I put a weight on it (Once I saw tanner Randy Breeuwsma drive his truck onto the "sandwiched" hide he was working on.) This really presses the solution into the hide and allows no air to circulate. I leave it like this overnight. The next morning I unfold it and scrape off all the solution that has not soaked in. Then I hang it out to dry. When the hide is partially dry, I start "pulling" it, as described below.

I use a heavy-duty metal strap, about 6 feet long and 2 inches wide. I nail the top and bottom of it to the walls of my house creating a nice stable D-curve to pass the skin through. I sit down while working. I lean back and pull the hide back and forth along the strap.
For this purpose, Natives would pull the skin around an upright pole; or fix to a tree a twisted cord of rawhide, or a buffalo shoulder blade bone with a hole in the center. Besides the pulling, I stretch the hide over my knees and shake it out every once in a while to help it regain its original shape. Then I put it up to dry some more. After a while, I repeat the pulling and stretching process. While it is hanging to dry, I stretch it with my hands in all directions a little.

After this work session and when the hide is almost completely dry, I take it down put another coat of brains on and leave it folded up again over night. The next morning I start sewing up the holes, that may have been created during the skinning or the earlier thinning process. I sew them up using sinew and a baseball stitch, entering the needle into the hair side. Usually they hold up during the softening process, although an occasional hole might have to be re-sewn. Now I repeat the whole stretching and pulling process as mentioned previously. At this time, I will be able to see where I left the hide too thick and where it is too thin. Where the fibers have started separating, I work around them. Now the hide should turn out nice and soft. If it does not, the braining and pulling as described above can be repeated, but in thin areas, the risk of the skin fibers separating and creating holes becomes greater.

Photo on the right:
A very rare shot of Cheyenne women tanning buffalo hides (1870's). The woman to the left of the photo is softening a hairless buffalo hide on a rope, while the woman to the right is thinning a buffalo skin with a scraper. It is interesting to note that the tipis in the back are already made of canvas not skins. The seams can be clearly seen on the original print.

Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution
(negative # 90-17238