Re: MtMan-List: period tanning / Alans comments

[agottfre@telusplanet.net (Angela Gottfred)]

"Matt Richards" <backcountry@braintan.com> wrote: 
>>My understanding from primary source research is that hundreds of thousands
of hides were sent to England.....many of them already brain and smoke
tanned by Natives (such as the Creeks). As the 1700's went on, an increasing
amount of these exported deerskins were sent untanned. They were then tanned
in Europe, using an oil tanning process, and many of these were then shipped
back to the US for use in garments. <<
Matt, thanks for this. At first, I was going to write & tell you that, from 
HBC &  North West Company journals for the 1774-1821 period, the only hides 
that I recall being traded were for the use of the fur traders at their 
posts. But then I had a quick flip through the journal of NWC wintering 
partner Alexander Henry the Younger, and found the following information on 
what the NWC traded in 1805. It was an eye-opener. 

"Returns of Outfit of 1805, Receipted at Kamanistiquia [Fort William], 1806: 
[out of 141,581 skins & furs received, there were:]
4,065 Deer Skins...
3,497 Dressed [brain-tanned] Orignal [moose] Skins...
173 Dressed Cariboux Skins...
906 Deer Skins, damaged, and Biche [elk] Skins, staged[?]...
38 Does [elk] and Cariboux, dressed...
218 Orignals, dressed" (Henry the Younger, Coues ed., vol 1, pp. 283-284).

(I've omitted the large numbers of beaver, marten, buffalo robes, etc. on 
this long list. There is also a smaller number of untanned 'parchment' 
skins.) This works out to 8,897 skins, which is only 6% of the total number 
of furs traded, but it's still a heck of a lot of brain-tanned skins going 
east from NWC headquarters on Lake Superior. 

Your humble & obedient servant,
Angela Gottfred
agottfre@telusplanet.net