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Caribou Hide

If one single material has been absolutely necessary to the Innu down through the ages, it would be the caribou hide. The hide is treated and used to make a thousand articles for everyday use: tent coverings, winter clothing, shoes, rawhide, crafts etc. It can be used raw, tanned or smoked.


  • Skimming the Fat and Removing the Hair
    5:05 min - We use the bone from the animal's hind leg to make a tool that is used to remove the ...
    Inside a tent, Pelashe Bellefleur removes the fat from a caribou hide
  • Rawhide
    5:18 min - After placing the stakes to freeze the stretched hide, the inside is scraped once more. Once the hide is frozen ...
    Outside, two women stretch a caribou hide a few inches from the snow, to freeze it
  • Tanning
    2:34 min - To soften the tanned hide, it has to macerate for a long time in this water and brain mixture, which ...
    Inside a tent, a woman soaks a caribou hide, as part of the tanning process
  • Smoking
    10:49 min - Before tanning or smoking, we decide on the hide's use. Once the hide has been prepared and all holes ...
    Inside a tent, a woman inspects the installation used to smoke a caribou hide


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