An Ancient Bond with the Land

Communal Hunters

After the Hunt

People used stone knives to skin and cut up the animal carcasses. Hundreds of carcasses could be in danger of spoiling if this work was not done promptly.

Women did much of this work. They removed flesh from hides with bone scrapers, making the hides pliable and smooth with stone scrapers, ready for tanning with the brains of the animals. Using bone awls and sinew thread, women sewed the hides into clothing. Meat was sliced thin and hung on racks to dry. Hammerstones were used to crush the bones for the bone grease used in pemmican. For rendering grease or cooking, water was boiled in hide containers by adding rocks heated in a nearby fire.

Sun-dried bison meat was a staple food whenever fresh meat was not available. The dried meat could be pounded to a fine powder and mixed with fat rendered from bison bones to make pemmican. Canadian Museum of Civilization, 52896, CD96-667-019