Judge Leo Timothy Arriwite spends his days dealing with legal matters in the courtroom at the Shoshone-Bannock Fort Hall Reservation in eastern Idaho, but when he returns home, he stitches together a connection to his ancestors. He has spent the last two decades tanning, smoking and sewing the “gauntlet-style” gloves that the Shoshone became known for across the West.
Toopombey Tendoy (right) stands with interpreter George LaVatta at his Shoshone-Bannock Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho in the 1920s. He wears elaborately beaded, gauntlet gloves typically seen in Shoshone ceremonies.
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Leo Arriwite makes gloves from brain-tanned hides, a needed accessory for which his Shoshoni people have been known throughout the West for generations.
Courtesy of Leo Arriwite
Arriwite is a Northern Shoshoni (his preferred spelling of his Shoshone band’s name). His people inhabited central Idaho in the Lemhi Mountains, southwestern Montana and Northwestern Wyoming. They are called Wihi’Naite, which Arriwite said translates to “From the Knife’s Edge.” Arriwite said, “Our traditional homelands are along both sides of the continental divide, which was known by us as the knife’s edge of the mountains.”
On August 17, 1805, the Wihi’Naite encountered the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery Expedition at Camp Fortunate near Grayling, Montana. At that time, the explorers’ guide, Sacajawea, who had been captured years before, was reunited with her brother, Cameahwait. Arriwite is descended from Sacajawea’s people and is a member of the band that was led by Chief Tendoy until he died in 1906. His son Toopombey was among his people when the U.S. government forced them to relocate to Fort Hall in 1907.
Arriwite grew up about 50 miles west of Camp Fortunate in Salmon, Idaho. His family would make leather for gloves, moccasins, shirts, vests and dresses. His grandmother tanned leather throughout her life, using the skills taught to her by her mother and grandmother. Although “traditional glove making by my people was historically undertaken by Shoshoni women,” Arriwite said, when the art was being lost, he decided to take on the trade. His father, also named Leo, then taught his son, Stephen Ariwite (who spells his name with one “r”). Together, the family is carrying on this long-standing tradition.
Shoshoni glove making is labor-intensive, beginning with brain-tanning deer, elk, moose or bison hides. A hide is first soaked in water for three days to loosen its hair. Then it is placed over a wooden pole so all remaining flesh on one side and hair and underlying membrane, or “grain,” on the other can be scraped off with a blade.
The hide will then be “tanned,” or finished, using the animal’s brains. This process keeps the hide from decomposing. “Each animal has enough brain to tan its own hide,” Arriwite explained. “Brains work better than chemicals because brains have an oil called lecithin which makes the hide fibers soft, whereas chemicals tend to burn the fibers, and they have to be rinsed numerous times.” After ranchers arrived, cow brains began to be used by some glove makers for tanning, but mad cow disease has reduced their availability.
The brain is boiled just long enough to make the mixture like a pudding and then worked into the hair side and then the flesh side. Then the hide is washed and the water removed by wringing it out. The hide is softened by pulling it until it is pliable.
Once the hide dries completely, it is tied into a tube shape for smoking. The white smoke used in the final process comes from a fire made with chips of wood from lodgepole pines, a tree species that can be found in abundance in the mountains and is also used for tipi poles. “The smoking of the hide is to give it color and to make it somewhat water resistant,” Arriwite said. “Some people use chemicals for smoking, but these don’t provide the same texture.”
Then Arriwite will cut out the two sides of the gloves from the tanned hide, which he then stiches together. He said his gloves are designed similar to the gauntlet gloves that his people used for ceremonies as well as during conflicts with other tribes and Europeans. Traditional Shoshoni clothing, including gloves, had beaded designs that reflected shapes from nature, including flowers and animals. He said the patterns for his gloves date back to before contact with Europeans, and the designs were drawn from stories or visions. After European contact, some Shoshoni gauntlet gloves were also patterned after U.S. military styles. Arriwite said when he first started taking glove making seriously in 2003, it took him a week to make a pair of gloves. “Now it takes me about a day and half,” he said.
Stephen Ariwite learned how to make gloves watching his grandfather while his father was at work. “It was something I wanted to get into but didn’t know how,” Stephen Ariwite said. “My grandfather did everything from scraping the hides to making the gloves.”
Not until his grandfather passed away in 2006, however, did he make his first pair of gloves. He still has them. “It felt good to know that all those years of watching gave me something I can now pass down to my children or grandchildren if this is something they want to learn in the future,” said Ariwite. “I enjoy it because it connects me to my grandfather.”
Shoshone-Bannock tribal elder Darrell Shay said the Arriwites are among a small group of Native families working in the area to keep the tanning tradition alive. “Our people are refining the art of tanning. … People know what a quality piece of buckskin is, whether tanned or not, and who does the best work. Leo has turned it into an art form.” Stephen Ariwite said Shoshoni tanned hides and gloves have a reputation around Indian Country. “Many tribes come here to buy Shoshoni hides.”
Leo Arriwite said when Shoshoni homelands were taken over by ranchers and farmers, Shoshoni gloves became a necessary tool. “They were highly prized and sought after,” he said. “Chief Tendoy, when he traveled throughout southwestern Montana, traded gloves with the ranchers and was well known for them.”
“Even nowadays, ranchers will order gloves from Fort Hall from people they know and ask for extra thick hides,” Shay said. “Regular gloves won’t hold up as well when working with the wire.”
“It gives you a sense of pride knowing people care about the quality and which family they come from and that we are not trying to mass produce them,” said Stephen Ariwite. “It’s not just about money.”
Stephen Ariwite said unfortunately not many Shoshone youth are learning the traditional tanning process, but at least his younger sister is now tanning hides. Arriwite is also teaching his wife, Toni Timbana, and youngest son, Bailey Ariwite, who watches as he makes gloves. “I’ve told him I will teach him if he wants me to. But we don’t force our culture on someone. They have to want to learn.”
Arriwite said he continues the art of tanning and glove making because it has long been his family’s custom. He said, “This is part of our identification.”