Apsaroke Hide Stretching
This 1909 photograph depicts an Apsaroke lady preparing hides for tanning and stretching. Every Native American tribe has a procedure for processing hides. The methods varied from region to region and person to person, but they all produced the same result: pliable, soft, and luxurious hide or leather. The hides were prepared in four phases: fleshing, dehairing, tanning, and smoking. During the fleshing phase, all meat and obstinate fat had to be removed. To make the hair removal process easier, certain traditions would soak the hide in a water-ash combination. The hides would next be tanned and smoked to ensure waterproofness.
Apsaroke Hide Stretching
Two Whistles
A 1909 photograph depicts a Mountain Crow man named Two Whistles with his spirit animal, a medicine hawk, perched atop his head. Two Whistles was unquestionably a driven warrior. His daring exploits began at the age of eighteen, when he joined two other compatriots in a raid on a Sioux camp, capturing one hundred Sioux horses. Two Whistles would fight the Arapaho and have other clashes with the Sioux. At the age of 35, Two Whistles fasted for several days, stating that the moon showed where he could obtain an unending supply of horse and bison.
Two Whistles
