Sinew Strips 1976.14.92
Octavius Seowtewa: It’s sinew1 from a deer.
Fumi Arakawa: Ah, that’s why it says “rawhide.”
Octavius Seowtewa: So what he was saying is that when you wet it and then you can start twisting it and make a string.
Fumi Arakawa: Yes, I see.
Octavius Seowtewa: Also, when you wet it, you can pull it apart togethe,r and then as you put it apart together and turn it quick, add some more on it and then your string gets longer and longer.
Fumi Arakawa: I see, I see.
Octavius Seowtewa: You can see the separations here. If it’s rawhide, you won’t have those little strands in there.
Fumi Arakawa: I see, so that makes…
Octavius Seowtewa: It’s sinew and it comes from the back strap of the deer. That’s the hardest…They sometimes use yucca, but it dries brittle. When this dries, it becomes even more solid. So, as you can see, somebody was already twisting it, as it was wet. And this one too. They were asking if it was elk or dear, I told him it’s probably deer.
Fumi Arakawa: Yea, probably deer.
Footnotes
A piece of tough fibrous tissue uniting muscle to bone or bone to bone; a tendon or ligament.↩︎