Handed Down - Nevada Arts Council

1990–1991
Paiute Buckskin Smoking:
Norma Williams and Stacy Gibbs
Norma Williams grew up with willow cradleboards
and baskets, buckskin moccasins and dresses, and
decorative beadwork. A Paiute Indian, she was born
at Stillwater, attended the Stewart Indian School, and
moved to Schurz when she married. Of the traditional
crafts of her people she says, “It was part of our everyday
life, you did it because you needed it. I just kept it up
all this time.”
Norma is the only person in Schurz she knows of
who still tans and smokes deer hides the traditional
way, and her granddaughter Stacy Gibbs recalls helping
stretch hides as a child. Stacy learned the skills of scraping
and tanning buckskin, but before the apprenticeship
had never smoked them to give them the traditional
golden color Paiute hides are known for.
The long process of preparing hides starts when a
Paiute hunter skins the animal by pulling the hide off
rather than cutting it. Cutting can make holes or leave
chucks of meat on the hide; “That’ll ruin your hide right
there, if they don’t know how to skin them good,” Stacy
explains. The hide is then soaked in water for up to a
week to loosen the hair, and the hair and thin layer of
skin are scraped off with a drawknife, again taking great
care not to cut holes. The traditional tanning process
involves rubbing the hide with cooked brains to soften
it; after that the hide is stretched constantly until it is
dry, a tiring and time-consuming process that leaves it
soft and white. “If you get it done and you see yellow
streaks or it’s real hard in certain spots, that’s when she
[Norma] gets it and dunks it back in the water, and
that’s when you cry,” Stacy laughs. “But you have to do
it over,” Norma reminds her.
Other tribes use unsmoked white hides, but the Paiutes
are known for their golden smoked buckskin. Two
hides are sewn together along their edges with the scraped
surface inside, and the bottom left open. A strip of canvas
is sewn around the bottom and the hides are hung up
over a can of smoking cedar chips. Any holes where smoke
leaks out are patched or covered with tape and the canvas
is tied tightly around the can to keep the smoke in. After
20 or 30 minutes the hides are checked and if the color is
right they are pulled apart and aired out.
Buckskin is used to make moccasins, gloves, vests,
cradleboard covers and other small items, but Stacy
used the hides she smoked to make a dance dress for
her four-year-old daughter Alyssa. Two hides were
Norma
Williams
shows some
buckskin gloves
and clothing
she’s made.
Norma
Williams
watches as Stacy
Gibbs checks a
freshly smoked
hide for color.
enough for the small dress, but an adult dress can take
up to seven hides. Alyssa dances with the Screaming
Eagle Dancers of Schurz, directed by Stacy’s mother, so
the dress will get plenty of use. When she outgrows it
her little sister will get it, and Alyssa will get the larger
dress her mother used when she was a girl. Not only
will the dresses themselves be passed on, but so too will
the knowledge of how to make them and the meaning
surrounding them.
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