Van Buren Argus Crawford County, Arkansas March 2, 1876 HOW INDIANS CURE MEAT AND DRESS SKINS When her lord has killed a buffalo, the woman’s work begins. She has to skin it, the meat to secure, and all to pack upon ponies or mules, and carry to camp, where the meat is cured. This is done by cutting it into thin sheets and hanging it over poles in the hot sunshine, where it is soon dried thoroughly; then it is packed fresh in packages of about one hundred pounds each, and enclosed in a nice folding sack of thick buffalo skin, prepared especially for the purpose. This is not dressed down thin after being fleshed, but well tanned, and of the full thickness of the skin; the hair side nicely ornamented with paint, for the outside of the sack. This is cut like a huge envelope, so that the ends and sides will fold over whatever is put in them, and secured by strong buckskin rings. By being thick it retains its form and is very useful for carrying other things beside meat and tallow. After the meat is taken care of the skin is looked after. Those taken at this season of the! year are mostly dressed for lodges. They are first staked on a smooth spot on the ground, and water put on them, when they are ready for fleshing. This consists of removing the flesh with an instrument made of a straight bar of iron, about a foot in length, flattened at one end and filed to an edge. This being grasped in the hand, and a succession of quick blows given, the work slowly proceeds. The skin is then dried after which the hair is removed in a dry state, and the skin reduced to the proper thickness by dressing down the hair side. This is done with an instrument made by firmly tying a piece of steel, filed t a beveled edge at one end, and with the corners rounded, to a large prong of a deer’s horn. This is to be trimmed, in connection with the body of the horn, as to form an elbow, and is used a little as a carpenter uses his adz. This work is usually done in the cool of the morning. The brains of the animal, having been properly taken care of for the purpose, are ! now soaked and squeezed by the hand until reduced to paste, and applied to both sides of the skin, which is afterward worked and rubbed until flexible. The preparation of robes is from winter skins, and differs from the foregoing only in being dressed down on the flesh side, so as to leave the wool and hair upon the robe and is more thoroughly worked and scoured by means of a sharp gritted stone. Fran Alverson Warren e-mail: [email protected] 479-369-2703 http://www.crawfordcountyarkansas.net/