Traditional Arts Master Brings Lifelong Buffalo Hide Tanning Expertise to Sinte Gleska University

By: Teddie Rae Herman, SGU Media.

MISSION - The outdoor grounds outside the Food Sovereignty building at Sinte Gleska University (SGU) were recently transformed into a living classroom for a free, unique cultural event, "Buffalo Hide Tanning", organized through a collaborative effort between the SGU Institute of Tribal Lands & Community Development and the SGU Equity Program.

Students and community members gathered under the open sky with their attention fixed on Gerald Cournoyer, Sr., a lifelong practitioner of traditional arts. Cournoyer stood before a large buffalo hide that he had placed in a container of water, his hands moving the hide around gently to manipulate the stiffest areas, especially around the edges and thick neck/hump area, to force water into the skin.

“Every step of this process connects us to the buffalo, and to the ancestors who relied on it for everything,” Cournoyer explained to the group.

During the two-day Buffalo Hide Tanning class, Cournoyer walked participants through the arduous stages of the tradition. He explained that tanning a fur-on buffalo robe requires a very specific approach. Because buffaloes have massively thick skin, especially around the neck and hump, you can't tan it like a delicate deer skin. If you leave the skin at its natural thickness, the tanning oils will never penetrate to the middle layers, leaving the robe stiff as plywood. Therefore, the most critical step is "thinning the hide" - which is to reduce the thickness of the skin uniformly until it is thin and flexible enough to absorb oils. But one must be very careful not to shave to deep so that the roots of the buffalo hair are exposed, or it will fall out from the other side, Cournoyer explained.

He demonstrated how the buffalo hide must be carefully secured to the large wooden frame, suspended under tension to stretch and dry evenly during the hide-tanning process.

For the students, the workshop was far more than a lesson in historical survival skills - it was an active reclamation of culture.

Cournoyer, who learned beadwork at an early age and has spent decades assisting communities with hide tanning, brought a vast wealth of traditional expertise to the hide tanning class.

His distinguished teaching career began at the Oscar Howe Summer Art Institute at the University of South Dakota. Over the years, Cournoyer has shared his knowledge across the country, instructing students in painting, drawing, printmaking, and ceramics. His extensive instructional path includes the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City Community College, the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, Oglala Lakota College in Kyle, and Montgomery College in Maryland. He also previously served as the Vice President of Development at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and taught at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota - where he instructed students in traditional arts, including advanced beadwork techniques, buffalo hide painting, and the construction of parfleche boxes. He has additionally instructed at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas.

Today, Cournoyer continues to balance his own academic growth - currently taking classes in Education from the University of Nebraska - with his dedication to youth and community. He presently serves as the Indigenous Fine Arts Coordinator at the Umonhon Nation, where he teaches pottery and middle school art classes.

By the time the two-day SGU workshop drew to a close, the raw hide had begun its physical transformation, and the participants walked away with a profound connection to their heritage.

The hands-on educational programming at the university is set to continue soon, as Cournoyer is preparing to return to work with the hides this coming October, with dates currently being coordinated with Shawn Bordeaux, Director of the SGU Institute of Tribal Lands & Community Development, and Meddore Douville, of the SGU Equity Program.