Pemmican Taste

Today our class made pemmican.We used fresh raspberries,dried cranberries, and dried cranberries with cherry flavoring.The raspberries tasted sweet and felt slimy. The cranberries were hard to mash and tasted sweeter than the raspberries.My favorite was the dried cranberries,because I like things that are sweet.

Info. about Buffalos!

Buffalos are huge cow-like animals. They look like a cow but harrier and bigger! People hunt buffalos for there meet and hide...poor buffalo. A hide is like the hair and skin hooked together. Our class right now is scrapping the hide.It's very hard but if you get used to it, it's easy! Sometimes if you live in or near plains you could get a real view of a real live buffalo! During winter they don't hibernate like bears, but their warm fur keeps them warm all winter. Oh, did you know their babies are called a calf just like a cow's baby? Cows, bulls, and oxen are all realated to the buffalo.

Buffalo Scraping

Right now we are scraping the membrane off the hide. We got the scrapers from the Helena High School, who made them. We found that if the hide is wet, it's easier to scrape. The hardest parts to scrape are the legs. They have lots of membrane. If you scrape to hard and to much, it gets holes. It already has holes from stretching it.

Experiments we did!

We tried an experiment of making Pemmican ourselves. Pemmican is buffalo meat, and dried, with berries. We got some raspberries,or cranberries and smashed them. Then some people smashed beef jerky. Then our teacher added fat, and some other meat, then we put it all together and ate it.

Buffalo, What Great Smell You Have!

Last Friday, with the Buffalo, EWWWW! It was disgusting! Literally it smelled like the Penguin section at the Zoo! That day we had to get it in the middle of the frame you stretch it out on, as I said, it reeked! We also dumped the water out of the 100 gallon tub, it was like a river going down to the playground. Gross. I laughed when a classmate said "can we go swimming." Talk about funny!

Buffalo Parts

American Indians used almost every part of a buffalo. They used brains for tanning hides. Meat was eaten. The dung was good fuel for fire. Cups and spoons were made out of horns. Almost nothing was wasted.

Stretchin It.

Today we had to make a 12 by 12 frame so we could stretch the hide. We used very strong string. We had to put 60 to 80 holes in it.