Blue Mountain Buckskin

For those who could get their hands on it, the self-published edition of 'Blue Mountain Buckskin' inspired a generation of home tanners. This underground classic -- over 10,000 copies sold -- is now being published and made widely available for the first time. 'Blue Mountain Buckskin' is a complete how-to guide to tanning buckskin at home, using the methods Native Americans and outdoorsmen have preferred for thousands of years. It also includes 40 pages on creating garments, pouches, moccasins and other traditional uses of the deer.

Jim Riggs

Jim Riggs is a nationally reknowned teacher of tanning and other outdoor skills and has been for over 40 years. He has done a great deal of work for museums, tribes and the US government. He was also the skills advisor for the Clan of the Cave Bear books and movies. A trained archaelogist himself, he has spent most of his adult life teaching archaeologists, professors, movie directors, survivalists and anyone else how to tan hides, flintknap, craft a bow, make a basket, build a shelter, start a fire by friction and find wild foods. In the 80's and 90's, before survival tv shows; if you wanted to learn these skills, you had to seek out Jim --- which wasn't always easy --- and learn from this incredibly knowledgable, humble, and well-written man. Many of today's experts on a wide variety of outdoor skills got their start learning from Jim. He continues to wear buckskin and reside in a cabin in the mountains of eastern Oregon.