Aboriginal Teachings

I was at a church meeting with Ashley's family last night, and there was a 3 month old there crying. I had learnt a technique from Prof. Gary Kerr at University of Montana that is used by aboriginal men in Australia. It's essentially whistling and humming simultaneously. It's also only done by men, and is very difficult for women to do. The idea is that the sound sooths children, and stops them from crying, and in some cases puts them to sleep. I tried it and was met with success. It seems to me that it works best when the cause of the crying is from general distress or discomfort, as opposed to crying for food.

Dinner with Wolves

The other night I went to a Wolf sanctuary called WolfKeep. Its an amazeing place, and if you're ever in the area of Missoula, Montana (about 30 or so miles from where), make a point to stop and visit.
We also worked on finishing the elk hide we've been trying to finish for months. Hopefully it's all done by now.

Snow Shoes

Kind of a delayed post. Over Thanksgiving Break I was in Helena, Montana. I finished my show shoes there, except for the rawhide lacing's.

The first snow shoe is Dogwood from Missoula, but I didn't have another piece of Dogwood, so I had to use willow from where I was at the time. I cut a flexible willow branch with my chert knife, and removed any sticks or switches so I had a nice clean loop. I also cut two cross braces.

Here is the materials I used and one semi-completed snow shoe. I used mule deer buckskin and dogbane cordage to lash the framework together. This particular style can be seen in Man Vs. Wild. I haven't had the chance to test these out, since we haven't had snow deep enough to warrant them.

First, tie the ends together.

Then place the rear cross-brace. I fitted this one to sit in front of my heel. I fitted them to be used with my boots.

Then place the front cross-brace. I positioned these to be below the ball of my foot.

Here are the completed shoes as I'd wear them in use. You can see I haven't laced them with babiche (the rawhide lacing's of a snow shoe). When I encounter deep enough show, I'll demonstrate their use.

I found an interesting video about snow shoes here

Snow in Missoula (gathing wood broken by snow)

Last night we got about a foot of snow. This is the first real snow we've had in Missoula this year. This also made for great snowball fights, but when morning came it also brought many broken and downed trees. Some of these trees were Basswood (American Linden). I've been waiting for a sizable branch from one of these trees to come down so I can get some new parts for my bow drill set. There's good trees around here for bow drill, but I like using Basswood for my set, and teaching others.

Here's a juniper that fell completely over from the weight of the snow.

When I got to the center of campus, there were stacks of branches piled up next to their respective trees (some had been but up into convenient pieces).

I cut several branches with my flint knife. The key to cutting with a knife like this is sawing around the stick to form a weak point, then snapping it in half. Continue sawing if the branch doesn't snap.

I'm also working on a pair of snow shoes. I have the frame of one completed, but I'll save picture from that for another post.

UPDATE: Its about 6 months from when I constructed my flint knife (box elder handle with raw Texas chert blade), and I compared it with a picture from when I posted about it in July (here)it is still going strong, with virtually no change, with the exception of a few flakes, but even those are minimal. Its been used extensively for cutting wood, boring holes, and various other tasks, and is still holding strong. I started out hafted with commercial tanned leather, but now sports brain tanned antelope hide bindings.

Squrriels on campus

We have alot of fox squirrels on campus here at University Of Montana. They're non-native species, the native squirrels are much smaller and darker in colour. This one is in a hole in trunk of a Mountain Ash tree. I've seen them here for past year, so it appears to be a favoured nesting site. I didn't have time to get closer (on my way to class) so I could only snap a quick picture. There's also a very large polypore on the left side of the tree too.

Crow Tribe teachings

I visited the archives today to do some work for a class and decided to look into a collection they have on campus by Fred W. Voget. He studied both the River and Mountain Crow tribe during the late 1930's. There is a lot of notes and information there, so I focused on teachings and how they raised their children. Here are some interesting things I found:

Some advice given to a man named Ball by his clan brother after his father died:
-Whenever you have a horse of your own, do not starve it, keep it fat.
-When you marry, never hit your wife, nor become jealous of her [this advice attributed to Ball's clan brother]
-His friends fathers would tell him never be lazy, but tend to the horses, and when he had a wife of his own, to provide for her and her family.
-They advised him when on a warparty, to have his gun at hand all the time, he should have it at his side while sleeping.

It's also noted that children who failed at one lesson, only got more lessons and care, until he learned the lesson. It seems rare that they gave up on children who failed to learn a lesson.

"Pretty-shield reports that when she was seven years old she dug roots"
"The Crow are not in the habit of punishing children by beating them. When a child is crying for a long time, the parents put it on its back and pour water down its nose. If at some later time the child begins to cry, the parents merely say "Bring the water!". Then the child generally stops."

In some of the notes, some men reported that when they were seven they recieved a "genuine bow". It also states that they were made of cedar and backed with sinew. The arrows were short and blunt.

"In the night the boys sometimes stole the two outside lodge poles. Then the owners would chase them and the thieves had to run for if they were caught their blankets would be taken away from them. They took the poles form the sheer mischief in order to be chased."

There was also information regarding names and naming practiced.
"It was bad luck for the natural parents to give a name to his or her own child. This service was performed by a special friend, upon request or a name came spontaneously by reason of some situation connected with the life of the named one."
"Medicine-woman possess the right to name their own children as well as their grandchildren."

I went on an antelope hunt with my friend, his father, and their friends. I took some pictures so I'll post those and detail the weekend soon.

Skills in Montana

I'm in Missoula now, so I've been doing skills out here.
I don't have any pictures right now (two reasons, 1. I don't have my connection cable and 2 haven't really taken any.)

I'll summarize a few things I've done so far:

-Taught a few friends how to skin and elk leg and remove the sinew, as well as tan the hide from the leg.
-Knapped a few arrow points and spear points
-Taught some friends how to make willow baskets
-Taught several people I didn't know how to make willow deer effigy's
-Explored the Blackfoot river, found some interesting knappable stone
-Stalked a doe and two fawns on campus for a couple of nights

Update:
This picture shows the bone and sinew from the elk leg, raisins made from grapes found locally, a squirrel pelt from a dead squirrel on campus, obsidian projectile points, and a deer hide tanned early in the season.