Preparing Caribou Skins
• Preparing caribou skin is hard work• Long ago, girls learned to prepare caribou skin when they were ready to learn this skill
Importance of Preparation
• Preparing caribou skins was important for survival of Inuit.
• Sometimes boys and men would help to scrape or stretch skins if necessary
How were skins used?
• Skins were used for clothing such as kamiks, parkas, pants, and mitts
• They were also used for tents, containers, sled runners, drums and many other useful items
Caribou Clothing• Caribou clothing is warm because each caribou
hair has honeycomb-like cells. The hairs trap air and act as insulators
Tools Used For Skin Preparation
• Some of the tools needed to prepare skins are Tasiuktirut, Tusiuktirut, Ipiksaut, Iktuksit, Hakuut, and Ulu
• Traditionally these were made of bone, stone, and occasionally metal if it was found
Skin Preparation: First Steps* Be prepared for sore muscles!
• 1. Dry the skin• 2. Work overly dried areas• 3. Curing the Epidermal Layer• 4. Fracturing or cracking the Epidermal layer• 5. Wetting the Mami (we used a spray bottle)• 6. Folding the skin• 7. Seeping• 8. First Stretching
Last Steps in Caribou Skin Preparation
• 9. Chewing• 10. Scraping to remove the Hypodermis• 11. Slight dampening• 12. Final stretching• 13. Aligning the sides• 14. Marking the middle• 15. The completed middle line • 16. Folded skins
Do People Still Prepare Caribou Skins?
• Caribou skins are still prepared today• They are used to make warm clothing, blankets, and sleeping bags for the land