Braintanned Buffalo Robes, Tipis, Rawhide & Parfleche: by Wes Housler

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Wes Housler's Online Catalog: page 1

WES HOUSLER

22 BELL CANYON ROAD, CLOUDCROFT, N.M. 88317
E-mail: wes@pvtnetworks.net
(505) 687-3267

BRAIN TANNED BUFFALO ROBES
These hand tanned hides are tanned like 120 years ago, scraped thin with a Wahintka (elk horn scraper), Brained, oiled, tanned soft and smoked if desired. All holes are sewn with sinew, with a running stitch on the hair side, as seen on the originals. All the lacing holes are left in the edges. By buying direct from the tanner, you by-pass the middle man. Check around and compare my prices with the commercial tanned products. I think you'll agree that we are quite reasonable.

sizes from 35 to 55 sq. ft.

The buffalo trade in the early west started out as a "robe" trade. This means tanned buffalo hides purchased from the local Indian tribes. Most of the animals tanned were heifers or young cows. "The Rocky Mountain Journals of William Marshall Anderson" written in 1834 claims:

"Mr Fontenelle asserted this evening, to knowing ones, that the American Fur company at their posts on the Miss & Missouri rivers, traded with the Sioux alone, in one winter, for fifty thousand robes--For this trade, it is remembered the cows only are killed--"
[179]

Unfortunately, female buffalo are worth too much alive to be slaughtered in any kind of numbers. What we offer is almost exclusively bulls, we do actively search for younger animals though. Buffalo-bird-woman, a Hidatsa woman that Gilbert Wilson interviewed at the turn of the century claimed "the skin of a two year-old bull made the best robe." (The Horse And The Dog In Hidatsa Culture, 234). But check with us if you're looking for a cow hide, we get a few most every year.

PAINTED ROBES
Robes painted with earth paints and hide glue.

depending on design
Price: Add - $100 to $250