[n
- Here we are.
[narrator] Tom Oar is making his final push of the season,
and he's relying on family to get the job done.
- Hey. - Hey.
- Are you ready for this?
- Yeah, I'm ready.
- All right, well, let's get it.
[narrator] Ever since Jack moved to the Yaak three years ago...
- Just a few more strokes of this thing,
it'll be ready to go.
[narrator] He's been a big help.
- Wow, that's straight. - Yeah.
[narrator] And with the Trading Post just about to reopen...
- Kill shot! - Right in the heart.
[laughing]
[narrator] They've got some last-minute work to do.
- Jack and I plan on making
a couple rawhide covered primitive drums
out of a hollow tree that we cleaned out the center of it.
♪♪
Here's that rawhide.
For lots of Native Americans, the drum
was the thing that called the people together.
Was probably one of the first instruments ever made.
[narrator] The design is simple, but the work is intricate.
Because each piece of the drum set is handcrafted.
- All right.
So I brought a couple muskrat skins.
I thought I'd trim out some muskrat skins
and glue 'em to the top of this.
- Yeah, I think that sounds good.
- If you put a strip of fur
around the top of the drum,
and then cover over the fur with the rawhide,
that gives the drum a little better sound.
[narrator] Tom's already trapped,
skinned and tanned the muskrat skins.
- Ready for the rawhide? Should we spread out
on the table here? - Yeah.
- We soak the rawhide in water overnight
to make it soft and flexible.
[narrator] The rawhide comes from an early winter deer hunt.
It too has been tanned, and now it's cut
into thin strips to be woven and sewn like thread.
♪♪
- I'm gonna put a rawhide handle
inside this drum to hold it by.
I'm gonna drill two holes in this side.
And then I'm gonna stretch a piece of rawhide
back and forth across here, so it'll be
a hand grip to hold the drum when you beat it.
I left Grandpa's drill at home.
So we're gonna have to go to modern technology here.
Yeah, this is a lot faster than Grandpa's drill.
[narrator] The rawhide is twisted into
tight cords while it's wet and pliable.
- This'll be the hand grip that you hold it by.
This rawhide's still wet though so it'll shrink and get stiff.
It'll be hard... but much easier to hold.
- I'm checking for score marks here
which would make weak spots.
- You can't have a hole in the middle of your drum.
You know, it's gotta be one solid piece stretched
very tightly over the wooden part of the drum.
[narrator] The drumhead is the showcase of the build.
- The shrinking of the hide after it's put on the drumhead
is what makes the sound of the drum.
The bigger drum will have rawhide
on the top and the bottom.
The hand drum will only have
rawhide on one side of it.
We need to punch holes to lace the rawhide on.
[narrator] Each piece of rawhide is cut large enough
to overlap the rim of the wood frame
where it'll be tightly secured with the threads.
- Getting it? - Huh.
- Are you getting it? - Yeah, I guess.
- To do things together and help out
one another, you know, is always a good thing.
- We'll be done with this in a minute.
- Or 20 years.
[chuckling]
- Yeah, we got a ways to go.
I gotta lace this all the way around here.
And that'll start pulling this all up together hopefully.
[narrator] Each piece of the drum is made
from durable natural materials
and painstakingly assembled.
- As the hide dries, it shrinks.
And that makes the cover super, super tight.
[narrator] The set of drums looks simple.
But they are so intricately crafted
that Tom and Jack should be able to sell the set
for around $500 at the Trading Post.
- I think that was the last hole.
- Thank God, huh? - Yeah.
- I have one more knot here.
- Hey, Tom, that's looking pretty good.
♪♪
- We're about to put the rawhide cover on the big drum here.
Just gotta lace it on through all these little holes.
[narrator] The larger drum has rawhide on two faces
which will produce a deeper sound.
They're stitched together using rawhide thread
that will tighten as it dries.
- All right.
I think that's gonna drum.
- Looks good to me.
Should we get the paints? - Yup.
[tapping drum]
- Sounds pretty dry. - Yup.
[narrator] And now it's time for the finishing touches.
- Uh, we're gonna paint some images on these drums.
We get after.
So earth paints, they just come from the ground.
Like, the black that I'm using is...
All it is is a piece of charcoal that's been granulized.
Then we're mixing it with hide glue to make it stick.
In the past, most all glues
were made from, from hides.
Of course, I have lots of hide scraps
and scrapings and stuff, so...
I make my own glue to mix
with the earth paints to get 'em to stick
to the subjects that I paint.
- I'm painting a buffalo.
- This is a...
a image of a black bear.
It was from a picture that I seen in a book.
[narrator] The natural paints Tom uses are long-lasting.
His recipe is the same as what's found in ancient cave paintings
and rock art that's thousands of years old.
- All right.
Yeah, I think it'll work.
- I think you got it.
It's looking good, Jack. I think it's fine.
- Let 'em dry and we gotta make drumsticks.
- Yeah. - But we're not done yet.
[both laughing]