Nature Bulletin No. 589-A   January 31, 1976
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
George W. Dunne, President
Roland F. Eisenbeis, Supt. of Conservation

****:HAIR, HIDES AND TALLOW

Since prehistoric times, especially in cold and temperate climates, 
mankind has depended upon hairy mammals for food and for materials 
to fashion clothing, shelters, weapons, implements and ornaments. 
Some of our American Indians had not progressed much beyond that 
when the white man came. They were Stone Age people.

For example, the Dakota or Sioux were nomads who roamed the Great 
Plains, attempted no agriculture, and depended entirely upon the 
millions of bison. (See Bulletin No. 324-A). Their only domestic animal 
and beast of burden was the dog. Their portable tipi (See No. 555-A) 
was a conical framework of slender poles covered with hides of the 
buffalo. Its flesh was their chief food. Surplus meat was dried into 
"jerky" to be eaten in emergencies, or -- pulverized and mixed with 
tallow, marrow, and berries -- to make pemmican. (See No. 257-A).
They used every part of the animal, including its horns, bones, sinews 
and hoofs. Brains and tallow were used in preparing skins for robes, 
shirts, moccasins, leggings, pouches, parfleches, etc. Raw hides were 
stretched over the frames of shields, saddles, and the tub-like bullboats 
for crossing streams. Buffalo droppings or "chips" were the only fuel on 
those treeless plains.

The pioneer explorers, hunters and settlers in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana 
and Illinois found a country teeming with buffalo, elk, bear, deer and 
the smaller furbearers, as well as wild turkeys and other game birds. 
Men like Daniel Boone, Abraham Hanks and George Rogers Clark 
adopted the Indian's dress and many of his skills. The early settlers 
copied them.

A pioneer wore moccasins of deer or buffalo skin, thigh-length 
buckskin leggings, buckskin shirt, and a broad leather belt which held 
his powder horn, bullet bag, skinning knife and tomahawk. Only the 
coonskin cap was his own design.

The settler used game and, later, domestic animals, for many purposes 
other than food and clothing. Frequently, in building a cabin, rawhide 
thongs were used to secure the rafters and tie down the ends of the 
clapboards or "shakes" on the roof. The door might be hung on rawhide 
hinges. On his bed, stretched thongs supported a bearskin mattress or a 
straw tick.

Tallow from buffalo and deer was used to convert deer hides into 
buckskin. Bits of it were scrupulously saved for use in "grease lamps" -- 
a gourd or scraped out turnip. As soon as a family acquired a big iron 
kettle, tallow was used to make candles and soft soap. (See Nos. 544-A 
and 590-A)

Commercial tallow, today, is the hard fat or suet about the stomachs, 
kidneys and loins of cattle and sheep. Some of it is used by candle 
manufacturers, and some in making oleomargarine, but the principal use 
is in soaps.

In Chicago there is a hide, hair and tallow market similar to those 
trading in grain, livestock and produce. Hair, obtained from tanneries 
where it is separated from "green" hides, is used for padding in 
upholstery, mats beneath carpets and rugs, pipe coverings and other 
products. Hides, of course, are used to make leathers and the prices 
fluctuate according to the supply of and demand for such items as 
"northern trimmed" horsehides, sheep pelts, cowhides, slunks (unborn 
calf skins), kipskins, and heavy calfskins.