The Native American - Year 2 personal growth project that I selected to complete was to Brain Tan a hide using the Sioux method.  After our summer trip, I was very impressed with this method of using a hide to create many of the beautiful costumes worn by the Native Americans.  I was also intrigued that it was a buffalo hide alone that kept one Native American gentleman warm during our North Dakota experience.  I felt this type of craft was truly becoming a lost art.

I thought that with my family being avid hunters each Fall season and usually obtaining a deer or two, that I would be able to use the specimen in order to complete my project.  Since I normally, tell these "avid hunters" that whatever they kill they have to "clean".  This was definitely going way out of my comfort zone.  Many who know me would call me a "city" girl and skinning a deer would definitely be a sight they would not want to miss.  

Therefore, in order to prove that I was truly the outdoorsman I had to proclaim to become, I decided that this was definitely the project for me.  And was in some way getting more in touch with this lost art and experience what it would be to use a resource provided by our earth and honored by the Native Americans as a source of life for them.  I truly admire how they used their resources and always with great spirit and pride did they preform these incredible pains-taking tasks in order to live.

My project will include the finished product of a softened, brain-tanned hide. I will also create a photo-journal of the process in which I used to create this buckskin. I have researched this project by reading a booklet entitled Brain-tanning the Sioux Way by Larry Belitz and Home Tanning and Leather Making Guide by A.B. Farnham. I have also consulted with a friend, Dave Ahlstrand, who has experience in tanning skins.

Please click on the following link for step-by-step pictures:   Brain Tanning