Give them the finger!

[tonybones]

Friends, in the conflicts between whites and Indians, the most common trophy taken was scalps. In many cases, particularly on the Indian side, fingers were taken too. I'm planning a necklace of at least 4 fake fingers. This one is made of buffalo rawhide with sinew balled as a tip, the fingernail is a sliver of deer antler, the joint wrinkles are done with a razor knife. I have red wool flannel AKA trade cloth to wrap around the protruding piece of deer tine. It's not there as a "bone" but glue in to provide a stem to drill a hole for a thong.

 

[omarick1948]

Sorry! ... That's a little sick, :barf: but to each their own, I guess?

JMHO

Rick

 

[necchi]

I've seen a few "fingers" carved into antler tine powder measures.

 

[Rifleman1776]

Gross.
Yer choice.

 

[gmarc]

A nice digital image........

 

[ohio ramrod]

Like so many things in this game, To each his own! While I would not appreciate one I can admire the skill used to make it. Just don't try to recreate Kit Carson's tobacco pouches! :idunno: :idunno:

 

[roger fisher]

I like it.. :v

 

[The New Guy]

I think that looks pretty darn good for a fake finger. Nice job.

 

[cynthialee]

EEEKKK

EWWWWW

That just makes my skin crawl!
I need eyewash now.

 

[tonybones]

A friend of mine has the book your pic was taken from New Guy. Thanks for the compliment. I was once a mortician, and had to make faces, heads, and hands/fingers sometimes for accident victims. I was pretty adept at it.

Psyching out an enemy was not limited to the conflicts between Indians and whites 1620-1900, but scalp locks, sometimes whole hands and heads were displayed during battles, the fingers were wore as a necklace or adorned shields to terrorize/demoralize an enemy, mostly in Indian on Indian warfare. I desire my repro artifacts/accouterments to be as realistic as possible thus I don't spend a great deal of time on dream catchers. It's all a part of our history, and also a hope it's not repeated.

 

[necchi]

Well done Tony,
And hats off to ya for being Period and Historically Correct.
History isn't always a Rose garden full of nothing but pretty foofarah is it?

 

[tiger13]

Agreed, well done Tony. History is what it is, and cannot be changed, nor can it be sugar coated.

 

[50cal.cliff]

History is history but, you got to admit his finger looks too dang real! Kinda gives me the willys!

I wouldn't wear that out in public as some one may call 911! :idunno: :rotf: I can just hear it now!

911 operator - This is 911 whats your emergency?

Caller - There is some guy standing outside the grocery store and.............he has a necklace of sorts, with fingers hanging off of it!

911 operator - Sir did you say it had fingers hanging off of it,........... like human fingers?

Caller - Yes, like human fingers! OMG he must be some kind of serial
killer!

The next thing you know some cop has you spread eagle on the ground............ :rotf: :rotf: and your trying to explain but it's part of history! :grin:

 

[omarick1948]

I've seen a few "fingers" carved into antler tine powder measures.

Who's fingers were they?
:idunno: .................. :shocked2:

 

[Rick Son]

Us Suak fox call them home made fries..I want one :grin:

 

[gmarc]

These severed items usually had spiritual power ascribed to them...like the Hawaiian "Mana"

Sometimes, scalps were "adopted" into the families of the warriors that had taken them, or by other families who had lost a member
Other times, human skins were tanned/tawed into other leather items, by whites and indians alike

good job on the fingers.....yes, history was not pretty

 

[hanshi]

:hmm: Why use artificial fingers when the real ones are so common? :idunno:

 

[tonybones]

Yes friends, history is not pretty. If I can find a long, black human hair wig at a thrift shop I'm going to make some scalp locks. Wearing them at pow wows and rendezvous would not attract much attention. This finger, and the one I am thinking of hanging from a certain knife sheath are "fresh", I need to get the dried and shriveled effect down. And i need to make them longer.

Bones

 

[Rifleman1776]

I understand your reason for making these. Your replication of the real thing was well done.
Not to my taste. Gross. But, historically, that was part of the point.
Carry on. Just don't sit next to me at dinner. :wink:

 

[Rev_William]

Looks great lol and I would want a few for a necklace too. I remember at a few rondy's back in the 70's I went to with my dad, imitation scalps were banned do to the gross out factor since it was an open to the public recruitment type gatherings.