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Why River-Recovered Cedar for Native Drums?
Cedar is a sacred wood to Native
Americans. Legends tell that Thunderbirds only built their nests in the
protected branches of cedar. Cedar represents the blood of the people.
We choose to construct our drum hulls from river-recovered
cedar logs. Some trees fell in the time of our ancestors, perhaps
centuries ago. The age of these logs does not just add to the mystery
of the drum, this wood is denser and produces a deeper resonance. We
travel throughout the southeast to a network of sawmills to find
recovered cedar. In some cases, our cedar does not come from the
river, we simply reclaim cedar trees that were knocked down in storms
or fell on their own. People have donated old cedar boards from barns
to Keith to make drums. But we never cut a new cedar tree to build our
drums.
We choose to build our hulls from cedar. It is more
work. We have to gather the logs ourselves or travel to various
sawmills to buy the cedar boards. Then we plane the boards to knock
off the rough edges and create a uniform thickness to the wood. Next
we season the boards, allowing them to dry to the perfect humidity: dry
enough not to make gaps when assembled into the hull, but not so dry
that the wood cracks.
Once planed and seasoned, the boards
must be sawn into the correct dimensions for powwow drum staves or hand
drums. This means six cuts for each board on the table saw: two cuts
for width, two more cuts to put an angle on the sides so that a circle
can be formed, and two final cuts for length. Now Keith has a pile of
drum pices, which he constructs into circles. All the edges have to be
sanded off to make a smooth circle. The inside must also be sanded
because the 16 pieces of the hand drum create angles. The top and
bottom must be rounded and sanded so the rawhide will not split when it
rubs against the edges.
This is why people call Keith Little
Badger a drum maker. He does not take a prefabricated plywood hoop and
stretch a precut circle over it. He works with wood. Every day, Keith
is covered with red sawdust. He MAKES the
drum. This method of Drum-making is a long process. It allows Keith a
lot of time to pray and meditate. The process is a spiritual one.
A little note on shipping......
We do not charge cards on the internet for your safety. Shipment for drums is 15% and 20% for Pow Wow Drums. When you order ignore the shipping charges. We add the shipping when we are ready to ship. That is when we charge your card.
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