Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
TRICKS OF THE TRADE: River Camp instructors Evan Seitz and Jesse Leonard are shown here teaching Harrison students how to scrape and dress a hide in Cardwell.
SOFTENING THE HIDE: Instructor Barnes shows the students how to climb onto the stretched bison hide in order to soften it; each student took a turn.
SMOKING HIDE: River Camp instructor James Simpson shows Harrison students how to smoke a deer hide inside the camp's wickiup.
SKINNING ON A FALL DAY: Mrs. Ehlers' 7th and 8th grade students learned how to skin hides at a work station on the River Camp campus.
On Monday, November 15 the seventh and eighth grade students of Mrs. Ehlers' Harrison School class made their way to River Camp in Cardwell to learn the traditional skills of skinning, graining, and prepping animal hides for tanning/dressing.
"I don't call it tanning, because we aren't using tannic acid," Instructor Barnes explained to the students. "Really what we are doing is "dressing" the animal in preparation for a lecithin treatment." He explained that very rarely does he now use brains to tan the hides brought to him. Instead, he uses lecithin, a mixture of fats essential to cells in our body, because they are more natural. He particularly likes sunflower lecithin for his hides.
River Camp, found at the corner of McKeown and Tebay Lane in Cardwell, hosts a youth course and an adult course in primitive ways of living, teaches areas of deer dressing, animal hide tanning, and more. The youth courses fall under The Outdoor Wilderness Living School (OWLS) and may be found at http://www.owlschool.org. Green University hosts the adult courses and may be found at http://www.greenuniversity.com.
The OWLS mission, according to course director Tom Elpel's website, is to awaken children and young adults to the beauty and value of the natural world, while giving them the skills, not only to survive, but to thrive in nature.
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