Yellowknife hide camp provides space for education and community

The faint sound of hide scraping, almost like the sound of a thin piece of wood being carved away layer by layer, could be heard throughout the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and Dene Nahjo’s hide tanning camp.

Hide tanning – a process of treating animal skin to produce leather or soft pelts– often takes days or weeks to complete involving dehairing, soaking, stretching, scraping and smoking.

Peering across the tanning camp, groups of tanners worked together on hides, many at different stages in the tanning process.

This is the second year Dene Nahjo has partnered with the First Nation to host the event, which took place from May 15-24 at the Wıı̀lıı̀deh Site.

For many people at the camp, the event was an opportunity to pass on Indigenous knowledge.

Tania Larsson, a hide tanning instructor and fine jewelry designer, said before tanning camps, there weren’t a lot of avenues for people to learn how to tan hides. Larsson said she “really sought it out” when she was first learning, and it took her more than three years to get started.

Larsson described a generational gap as knowledge was not passed down because of residential schools and other factors.

“I’m glad I’m able to share the knowledge I’ve learned from so many Elders across the North with the people here.”

Jocelyn Kierstead-Weber, a participant at the hide camp, said learning the craft can be a long process. She was carefully scraping a moose hide that she said she began working on three years ago after trading an Elder in Fort Simpson a bag of potatoes for the hide.

While she said the work makes her arms sore, she often thinks about her ancestors during the process.

“Sometimes I get into almost like a meditative state. I think of my grandmother and how a little woman was able to carry hides on her own and process these hides,” said Kierstead-Weber.

“Obtaining some of this knowledge brings me closer to them. I have a connection to my ancestors and to my culture.”

The camp was as much about hide tanning as it was a testament to community and connection. 

“We’re also rebuilding connections across generations, whether it’s building a connection to the land, connection to animals, connections with Elders and youth, it’s really bringing the community together,” said Larsson. 

For Yellowknives Dene Elder Beatrice Sangris, the atmosphere and the energy of the camp brought back memories of the past.

“I used to watch my granny and grandpa helping each other, and today I see that my mind went back a long way, when I was at home with my family. I see today, even if you don’t know them, they come around and help,” Sangris said.

Sangris said that hide tanning largely disappeared from her life after she attended residential school, and seeing the next generation bring it back is something she is deeply grateful for. 

“I never saw this, and now the next generation is bringing this back, and now I’m an Elder and I’m just so thankful for that [from] bottom of my heart,” she said.

Sangris told the next generation of hide tanners to “don’t stop.”

While the camp was a success, a unique challenge is making it difficult to practice traditional hide tanning.

As part of the traditional tanning process, tanners apply a layer of brain paste over the hide to ensure it stays pliable and soft.

The paste is made from boiling animal brains and mashing them with soap. For years, many hide tanners have used Henkel’s original Sunlight Pure Soap bar to make the paste.

But the soap was discontinued in 2024, and tanners said since then, the price for the soap bars has risen.

Thumlee Drybones-Folio, a tanning instructor at the camp, asked Henkel to reproduce the soap. Drybones-Folio said the company told them if enough people requested it, they could bring the soap back, but they have yet to do so.