Chippewa Customs

TANNING

DENSMORE) CHIPP:r;WA CDS'I'o:M:s 163 these were combined in such variety that only three or four duplicates were found in the entire collection. Thirty-four fragments of j aI'S were large enough to show the curve of the sides and the size, which varied from a few inches to about a foot in diameter. The color of the pottery fr"agments also showed a wide variety, including black, orange, and very pale gray, as well as the familiar browns and reddish shades. Skeletal material was collected and submitted to Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, of the National Museum, who reported that "the bones are those of a male skeleton, in all probability Indian. They are possibly not over a few decades old." The large bones were pierced near one end, the puncture showing the use of a conical instrument and breaking into the marrow cavity. (PI. 73.) USE OF DYES The general process of dyeing consisted in the use of a vegetable substance to secure a color and a mineral substance to " set" it. Porcupine quills were the easiest material to dye and rushes were the hardest, sometimes requiring numerous "dippings" before the desired shade could be secured. Yarn and ravelings of blankets were among the materials most frequently dyed by the industrious Chippewa women. The colors most used were yellow and brown for large quantities and red for small quantities, as for quills. ,Black was more difficult to produce than these colors. Purple (" blue") was rarely used and green was never used by the Minnesota Chippewa but was seen as a native dye among the Chippewa in Ontario. The material was boiled in the dye. If a darker shade was desired, the material was either reboiled or allowed to stand in the dye. The vegetable substances most used were plum, alder, sumac, butternut , oak, dogwood, and bloodroot. The mineral substances were grindstone dust, a reddish substance that rose to the surface of certain springs, and a black earth found near certain springs. These were used in connection with the vegetable products, according to various formulas, in some of which the proportions of the ingredients were designated. (See" Uses of Plants by the Ch~ppewa Indians, Fortyfourth Ann. Rept. Bur. ArneI'. Ethn., pp. 379-384.) "Wood was given a reddish color by the fumes of a certain" black mud" placed in the fire. TANNING (a) Prep(Jff'aticm of hide.-Otter or other small skins were prepared as follows: The skinning was started at the hind quarters, the hide being drawn forward and the head left on the hide. This was then stretched on a frame. A long frame, as for an otter hide, would have two pegs neal' the corners at the wide end, these pegs 164 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [nULL. 86 I being put through the hide, then the frame, and then the hide again to keep it taut. When dry the hide was removed from the frame, this being the form in which the hides were sold to traders. If the hide were to be used for a medicine bag, it was not turned and put on the frame, but dried right side out stuffed with dry grass. Such a frame is shown in Figure 15. A deer hide was spread on the ground and sheared with a sharp knife; it was then soaked in clean water for two days, or for a night, after which the rest of the hair was scraped off with an instrument consisting of an iron blade set in a handle. At Mille Lac in 1925 a woman was seen at this work and photographed . (PI. 74, 0.) The hide is spread on a log which is braced against the root of a tree. In tanning a deer hide the flesh next to the hide was removed by laying the hide over the top of a post so it hung down loosely ail around. Four cuts were then made in the fleshy tissue, these cuts being where the hide rested on top of the pole. Beginning at these cuts the tissue was worked loose by means of a bone implement, and entirely removed. This implement was made of the leg bone of a moose. It was fastened to the upper arm of the worker by means of a thong, enabling her to use it more easily. The brains of the deer were rubbed on this hide to soften it, as the hide had very little oil in...