Fleshing tool – mitshikun; scraper or beamer

Two very important tools are used to prepare caribou hides: mitshikun (fleshing tool) and pashkuatshikan (scraper or beamer). Once the flesh and fur have been removed, the hide is soaked in a mixture of water and caribou brains or detergent and hung up to dry. At that point, the hide is cut into thin strips to use as babiche (for example, assiminiapi) for snowshoes or smoked so that it can be used to make moccasins, mittens, and other clothing.

“I learned how to use the scraper by watching my mother. My father made it for her. The scraper is made of a silver spoon and it is flattened then sharpened at the round edge. A knife is then used to make teeth around the flattened spoon. It is sharpened after a wooden handle is put on it, and a very strong string is used to attach the blade to the handle. The scraper is wrapped in a cloth so that it does not get dull.”  Shimun Michel

“The scraper is also used to clean the pelts of other animals such as beaver, otter, mink and martin. It is a very good tool to use for cleaning caribou hide and pelts.”  Manian (Ashini) Michel

“Prior to the removal of flesh and fat from a fresh caribou skin, the frozen and often bloody skin was thawed out in warm water. It was then placed hair side down over a short post. A woman hacked off meat and fat with a fleshing tool, of which there are 11 examples in the collection, representing two basic types. The type 1 fleshing tools, seven in number, have large, bulbous wooden handles to provide added weight and driving power…Five specimens have spatulate-shaped steel blades with serrated edges inserted into the split distal end of the handle. The blades of two fleshers are lashed with strips of tanned caribou skin… another two are wrapped with cloth and lashed with babiche.”  VanStone (1985:21-22)

“To remove the adherent particles on the flesh side of the skin a peculiar instrument has been devised. The tibia, or large bone of the hind leg of the reindeer, is used for this purpose… If the leg of a deer is not convenient a wooden handle shaped like the long handle of a mortising chisel is fashioned, and to it is affixed the metal point by means of stout lashings… Around the upper portion of the wooded shaft a notch or groove is cut, and in this is tied a stout thong in such manner as to form a lop to prevent the hand from slipping down the smooth bone when the blow is struck. The manner of using this instrument is peculiar and effective. The skin is thrown, with the flesh side up, over a stake 2 or 3 feet high driven firmly into the ground. A blow is given with the tool which separates the subcutaneous tissue, and by rightly directed blows this may be separated from the skin entire. The skin is then laid aside for further working.”  Turner (1979[1894]:130)

For more examples of these tools, search the Material Culture section of this website

References:

Lucien M. Turner. 1979[1894]. Indians and Eskimos in the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula. Quebec: Presses COMEDITEX. James W. VanStone. 1985. Material Culture of the Davis Inlet and Barren Ground Naskapi: the William Duncan Strong Collection. Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History. Fieldiana, Anthropology New Series No.7.