Curing horn. Nasty job. Pix.

Bill Martino

Bill Martino

Joined
Mar 5, 1999
Messages
34,096
Here's how it's done.

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Like the old joke about "how to cook kidneys" - No wonder Hooflex smells better :eek:
 
I think the only thing worse I have smelled was a more than prime prairie hawk my daughter brought over to the house to get some help taking it apart.
Rubber gloves and a fairly strong wind were an absolute must that day. P-Eeeew!!!!:eek:
Although the 55 gallon drum of deer feet curing out for the deer toes wasn't my idea of ambrosia either.:barf:
 
OK Yvsa, I'll "bite" whats up with deer toes? Is this anything like the monkey testicles a "friend" fed me in a mystery dish in Thailand? They were good, even after I found out what it was I had jus' et'.
 
Deer toes are the original rattles that the Southern Straight Dancer wore around his upper calve's.
Most people these days use harness bells. Some of the harness bells are cast and they are very costly, around $5.00 or more a piece.
I haven't seen a price on them lately, but it takes at least 25 on each leg to make the right kind of sound.

I don't know how big or how good this pic is since I'm just learning about tweaking the photos and still don't know what I'm doing.

I have 50 deer toes on each belt that you can see around my legs. Each one was carefully polished on my buffer until it shines like a diamond in a goat's arse.:) Then they were individualy sewn on the leather belt. It was a lot of work, fortunately I got my deer toes at a good price, but it still costs a lot of money to be an ndn.
Theres around $1,500 in the outfit I'm wearing.
The Southern Straight Dance is a gentleman's dance and doesn't have all the fancy moves and gyrations of the fancy and grass dancers. The traditional dancer is sort of in between in the moves and dance steps used.
 
What kind of interesting facts I'm going to learn here at the Cantina. Yvsa, do the toes rattle against each other or are they like a rattlesnake rattle? Thanks for the lesson.
 
And we have a tendency to start our dancers at a young age as is shown in this pic of a young adopted nephew.
Bear is also adopted by his new family through DHS and The CHerokee Nation of Oklahoma.
He's just now going on 2 years old. This is his very 1st outfit and he's outgrown it I think twice.:)
There are 2 older siblings that also dance. Chuck is a Straight Dancer and his sis is a Southern Cloth Dress Dancer. Buckskin is not only very expensive to make a ladies dress from it;s also extremely hot, especially in our hot summers.
All of the dance clothes are kept in a mixture of different herbs and plants like tobacco, sage, ndn perfume, sweetgrass aand bergomot or horse mint. That keeps the clothes smelling nice as well as keeping the little creepy crawler brothers away.:)
 
And if you ever get out this way from WV we will have a Sweat in your honor as long as we don't have a fire ban going on.
The current one has been lifted from all but 8 counties in Oklahoma. Haven't been able to Sweat in over a month.:(
 
John I won this staff in a raffle. It was made by a friend of ours and I was very fortunate to get it. I had my eye on it from the 1st time Roy showed it too me.:)

It has no real significance and I use it in place of a short "Dance Stick" because I need something to help hold me up when I'm out in the arena and it's much prettier than my regular walking stick.:)

But there are some very meaningful icons on the staff. There are all the animals that represent the Seven Clans of the Cherokee and those were all carved from places in the natural wood that resembled the animals, funny how that works out sometimes.;)
There is also some of the very beautiful beadwork Roy does, I don't have the patience. And the very top is an Elk Antler's Crown. I will maybe replace that with my mounted Eagle's Head one of these days as they are both made in such a way so they can be removed. The Eagle's Head has to be kept in a cedar box or otherwise protected from the creepy crawlers that love to eat all but the spines of the feathers when not in use.
 
Great pictures Yvsa! I like that staff also. It must be nice having so rich a cultural heritage to keep alive, thanks for sharing it with us. I was looking at your picture but I couldn't tell, are you wearing a khukuri somewhere?:D

Guy
 
:D Well actually I have one of the crossed khukuri silver pins on the bottom of my otter drag that goes down the back.:D
I looked for the original pix that Uncle Bill posted quite some time back, but couldn't find the post.

And if I was able to get around better I could and maybe would carry a khukuri instead of a dance stick.;)
When you get to be my age and are still danceing you can get away with a lot of things the youngens can't.;)

And the rich cultural heritage as you say could apply to many of us if we knew where to look at what is available.
I could legally participate in the Scottish Games that's held here every year in Tulsa as well as Oktoberfest since I also have blood from those two peoples as well. Prefer bein' an ndn though, suits me much better so I never did go much for the other 2 cultures but I have studied the cultures a little bit and know that at one time they were a tribal people as well with many of the same traditions of the ndn.;)
 
Thanks for sharing them. It looks like there is an incredable amount of work that goes into your outfits. They are quite handsome. Braves your nephews age grow overnight, hard to keep up with them. Take Care.
 
yvsa - great pict! The 1st time i saw the pict i noticed you & your staff - what sort of wood it is made?
 
That is a great pic, Yvsa. I believe your cost estimate, but what a gorgeous outfit! We all know you don't need the outfit to be an NDN, but you do need to display your pride in your heritage to encourage the youngsters to take pride in theirs. The world would be a much poorer place without the heritages too many people fail to take pride in. The wonderful cultures of peoples who are less than rich in our overly materialistic world (e.g., NDNs, Nepali kamis) are too often neglected. It does my heart a world of good to see the respect that a few of the kamis are belatedly getting through the efforts of Uncle Bill and Pala and also the hope for the future that regalia like yours symbolizes.

Paul
 
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