This is a photo of Lucy-Anne Yakeleya’s hide out at Blachford Lake Lodge during a Dechinta visioning & planning retreat in November, 2015. Here, her hide is on the final smoke. This means that the hide has been soaked and rubbed in brain paste and solution and that it has been softened and scraped to satisfaction. After the final smoke the hide is ready to be used as a leather. This smoking method is called a “flat smoke”. The hide is laid flat over top peeled logs above a smoke pit, as pictured above. Charred or rotten spruce wood, a.k.a “tinchur” in Denesuline or “dah’shaa” in Tlicho, is lit on fire to produce a tiny flame and an abundance of smoke. This rotten, orange wood can be found wherever a spruce tree has fallen and when moss begins to cover the limbs of the tree. Kick the moss off, throw your work gloves on and gather the bits of rotten spruce wood in a bucket. Some people like to use the larger chunks of wood for smoking and other folks prefer to use the tiny little crumbs of wood. Either way is suitable. This smoke is what gives traditional brain-tanned moosehide its’ one-of-a-kind smell and coloring. Smoking the hide also helps it to absorb the brain paste, as explained in a few of my posts below.