A Memory & A Reminder
on making a buck skin pouch
This weekend I had the privilege of visiting the Fort Hall Reservation, the ancestral land of the Shoshone and Bannock peoples. While there, I had the opportunity to make a beaded, brain-tanned buckskin pouch.
As we began the afternoon, hand-sewing the small pouches, our guide reminded us that Native people “are circle people” who believe all things are connected. He encouraged us to stay grounded and filled with positive thoughts to infuse our creative project with good energy. The pouch was a simple craft that opened up a door to learning and community.
While we worked a small needle through three layers of braintanned buckskin, he explained that native cultures have practiced brain-tanning and smoking for thousands of years.
“Brain tanning is the ancient art of preserving animal hides using the emulsifying agents in brain matter, which helps break up the mucous membranes that cause animal hides to harden. This traditional method was used by many Native Americans to preserve buckskin for clothing, but modern tanning methods in factories using chemical baths have largely replaced brain tanning. Only a handful of people still have the skill to tan hides using traditional methods.”
https://www.outdoorlife.com/articles/hunting/2016/06/how-brain-tan-deer-hide-8-steps/
All was going well with my soft, slightly smokey, leather pouch until I started beading. When I asked our Native-American teacher, “Is this right?” (I didn’t think it was…) He looked at me (with a twinkle in his eye) and said, loudly, “It’s terrible! You are doing it all wrong! THIS beading is going to give us a terrible winter and a late spring!!” He laughed, then patiently showed me where I had gone wrong.
I was thrilled to accept the invitation to spend an afternoon on land that has been cared for, cultivated, and honored for millennia by people who love and listen to the land, plants, and animals in a way my modern sensibilities never will. It was profoundly beautiful to listen to stories and wisdom, while poking my fingers (repeatedly) with the small needle for hand sewing, and laughing with new and old friends, as we learned an ancient craft on sacred ground.
And…
I also find myself wrestling with the complexity of how indigenous people have been treated, the wisdom and humanity that have been lost, and wondering how we continue to move forward, with humility, gentleness, and grace.
My brain-tanned, buckskin pouch is now pinned to the bulletin board above my desk. It is a memory and a reminder that learning and growth happen when I step outside of my comfort zone, listen to other voices, and engage with care. The small pouch and short time together sparked questions that won’t be easily answered for me, and for that, I am grateful.
Maybe poking your fingers for a few hours hand sewing a small pouch isn’t on your agenda, but can you read or listen to words written, sung, or recite by a voice and perspective different from your own? Can you purposefully put yourself into a position of learning this week?
Maybe this…
or this…
I’m sharing a few quotes from Steven Charleston’s book Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder’s Meditations on Hope and Courage. Steven is a member of the Choctaw Nation and served as the Episcopal bishop of Alaska. I find his writing inspiring, thoughtful, and challenging. Read each passage slowly, notice if one catches your attention, and consider if a word or phrase in the passage you selected holds an invitation or challenge for you to take up this week.
“In the darkness, in the valley of shadow, we can feel isolated and afraid. But once we have the light of hope, we begin to see just how many people share in our struggle. The first step toward community is recognizing our common humanity. Instead of seeing strangers in the dark, we recognize fellow climbers in the light.”
― Steven Charleston, Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder’s Meditations on Hope and Courage
“The light beyond the hill. Your spiritual journey is measured not by how many answers you have accumulated, but by how many questions you have confronted. We are not gods who must know everything, gatekeeprs to truth-we are seekers who look for the truth where it may be most difficult to find. Our wisdom is not in what we know, but in what we wonder. The light beyond the hill calls us to leave the shadow, even if the shadows were our pride and our possession.”
― Steven Charleston, Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder’s Meditations on Hope and Courage
“Makers. If we know anything about the Spirit, it is this: she likes to make things. Vast galaxies spinning countless stars like a pinwheel, endless planets with mountains and valleys of every shape and size, tiny cells hidden in land frozen for a thousand years, and great creatures swimming silently in distant seas. What the Spirit thinks comes to be; what she dreams, happens; when she speaks, matter changes shape and energy crackles through the open places of our lives. She is the maker of all things, and she calls each of us to share her image. Not to be complacent. Not to sit idle in the heart of change, but to take up our tools and make tomorrow happen.
― Steven Charleston, Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder’s Meditations on Hope and Courage
I love that pouch! Well done.