If you talked to the old people about the days when our tribe roamed the Great Plains they will tell you about the Wicasa Peta Yuha pronounced Wechsha Payta YouHah (man fire who keeps) or in English the keeper of the fire. Really the man or women was tasked with the movement of fire from camp to camp. This could be done in multiple ways either by wrapping hot coals in nesting materiel and bark (called an Apache Matchstick) or by carrying it in a buffalo horn cap, which is the traditional way for plains people. In the next few days I will be taking my daughter out in the wild to show her some of the old peoples ways and one of thse ways will be the Wicasa Peta Yuha, using a cow horn cap. I will make a fire carrier using scrap material and an old cow horn cap. Growing up we used these when we moved our hunting and fishing camps and they are a proven tool that makes fire tending easy. Pictured are the cow cap 1/8 inch thick leather, and some scrap leather trim I make into lacing. Step 1 Lay the cap on the backside of the strap leather and mark approximately 1/4 inch off the side of the horn from the tip to the bottom of the bend. This will act as a guard between the cap and your body when hauling the coals that are hot and heat up the horn cap substantially. Step 2 Cut the leather at a slight taper with the narrow end being the belt loop top and the wide end being the cap holding area. Step 3 Punch four holes 1/4 of an inch from the edges and bottom with 2.5 inches between the top and bottom row. These four holes will hold the horn cap in place against the leather. Step 4 Now punch two holes 1/2 inch from the top and sides. These two holes will be folded over and laced to make a belt loop. In the old days no holes would be punched and the top would just be folded over into the pants or leggings top. Step 5 Holding the cap in place run a lace from the back through the front over the cap and into the second top cap hole. Once this is done fold the top of the leather over and run the laces through the two holes forming a belt loop. Step 6 Now run the longest lace end through the bottom holes over the cap and back through the opposite hole. You should now have a secured horn cap and leather guard/belt loop. Tie the two lace end together and you have a fire carrier. But like I have said many times we are Lakota in this house so we have to make things a little better and nicer looking. We are going to take some white and red died horsehair a jingle dress jingle and some sinew a to make a Sioux temp gauge. I simply bundle the horsehair trim and wrap with sinew and attached to the lace ends. Next I take the jingle open and wrap around the knot lace area. This not only gives it a nice look but when tucked between the horn and leather will give warning if the horn cap get to hot simply by smelling like burn hair. And there you go the Lakota way of maintaining the legend of the Wicasa Peta Yuha
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 06:20:22 +0000
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