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Learn to tan that hide

Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (May 26/06) - It's day four of removing hair and flesh from a moose hide for cultural interpreter Lucy Anne Yakaleya.

She is part of this year's culture camp touring Yellowknife schools to share aboriginal culture and language with students.

NNSL Photo/graphic

Lucy Anne Yakaleya of Fort Good Hope cleans a moosehide during a demonstration at the aboriginal language and culture camp, which made a stop at J.H. Sissons school this week. - Jason Unrau/NNSL photo


As the Fort Good Hope woman runs a blade down the hide, stretched out over a piece of wood, she talks about what lies in store to complete the tanning process.

"When this is done, I'll rinse it in clear water first, and then a soap solution with moose and caribou brains," she tells me.

Moose and caribou brains?

"There's an enzyme in the brains that works really well to cure it," she explains while loose flesh and hair fall from her blade.

Inside a McPherson tent, the smell is strong and the hide sits on large garbage bags, with Yakaleya dressed in something resembling hip waders fashioned from the same kind of bags.

"It's a messy job," she says after I've noticed her interesting apparel. "For a big hide, you can get an entire bag of moose hair."

So would she use the hair from this hide for moose tuftings? "No. It isn't good enough. You need really long hair for that."

After Yakaleya finishes cleaning the hide and rinsing it in her brain-soap stew, she stretches it out to dry and scrapes it - then the time comes to smoke it. That's what gives the hide its unique smell and helps make the shade of the final product.

"Then it's time for the big smoke," she says.

Yakaleya explains that using punkwood (rotten wood) and diamond willow, the object is to create lots of smoke and little flame.

"This is what transforms it," she said, noting it takes "A long time." But however long it takes to complete a naturally produced tanned moose hide will be worth the wait.

In addition to keeping a traditional skill alive, Yakaleya is creating something natural, and with the exception of the soap for her brain hide cure, there are no harmful chemicals associated with the hide tanning industry.