-Biography-
About Melvin Beattie and The Tanning Spirit

How I got started with Native American crafts and Mountain Men Lore: At the breakfast table Nabisco Shredded Wheat, in between each layer, was a blue card with pictures of Indian lore and know-how by Straight Arrow (Steve Adams). This was my earliest memory of playing Indian 1949-1950. The only thing that has changed over the years is the title, Indian to Mountain Men.

My Grandfather was a full time trapper, fur and hide buyer. He had a book on furs, trapping and tanning. One method of tanning was using the brains for softening and wood ashes to slip the hair. Needless to say, that first hide was one black dirty mess. The interesting thing about the recipe was to boil the brains in a muslin sack then soak the hide in the water. That first hide was not what you would call buckskin. Back to my Grandfather's pile of hides and start over, over, over and over.

By the early 70s I had met a few non-Indians who brain tanned, but the best information I ever got was from Mary Jackson of East Glacier, MT. Mary was a Cree Indian lady that was still tanning moose hides at the age of 70 and doing bead work. The first meeting with Mary I had six brain tanned white hides with me, in the traditional Indain way Mary said nothing just examined the hides nodded handed the hides back to me. For the rest of the day I listened to Mary tell how she tanned hides deer, elk and moose. I left with greater understanding and appreciation of brain tanning.

The day spent with Mary filled in the missing information that I needed to finish the white hides. Most of the 70s I spent living in a very small mountain cabin and perfected the tanning skills that I had learned over the years. One of the processes that became the signature of my beautiful soft smoked brain tanned hides was discovered because of the small living area of the cabin. During the 70s and early 80s I was doing 100 hides a year selling at Powwows and Rendezvous. With limited space I started tacking hides on to the wall and when dried rolled them up for storage which is now called "aging hides". How and why it worked I didn't understand, but the method I used produced the beautiful hides that I sold.

Hunting season the fall of 1989 I made the video "The Tanning Spirit" which I began selling in 1990. Over the last 15 years new understanding of the process of brain tanning has emerged and I have made small changes to the basic method in the video which is what this web site is all about.

I am back to where it all started; it is time for breakfast.

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