Last year Keith made a limited edition run of very special 16" hand drums. The hulls came from a lightening-struck cottonwood tree that had no business being in Alabama. Read more about that story here. He headed the drums with elk. We ran out of elk hide. The last drum from this series sold to a gentleman in PA. (Thanks, Jim. Hope your wife loves her drum). No more elk, but we still have some cottonwood.
Since we took the whole cottonwood tree, we have decided to use cow hide on the cottonwood hulls. Our cow hides provide a reliable sound and the cottonwood hull makes a lightweight drum, perfect for women.
Once again, this will be a limited run. When the cottonwood is gone, it's gone. Priced at $190.00, these 16" drums will go fast. Call now to place your order.
ROUND HAND DRUMS
We refuse to build hand drum using the "cheese wheel" or mass-produced plywood "hoop," and kill more trees in the process. Instead, Keith Little Badger constructs his round hand drum from 16 pieces sanded into a circle. He uses river-recovered cedar. NO TREES HAD TO DIE.
We use rawhide laces, not string or imitation sinew, to keep your drum head tight. These rawhide laces are cut from same hide as the head so they will expand and contract with your drum. This is extremely important: drums laced with nylon cord or sinew will eventually result in a loose drum head. We provide a FREE drum stick with every drum. CLICK on the thumbnail photo of drum back at right to see detail of the lacing and back.
12" diameter: $100.00
14" diameter: $130.00
16" diameter: $160.00
18" diameter: $190.00
Front of hand drum
Hand Built Cedar Frames
Rawhide Lacing
WHY DO WE USE RIVER-RECOVERED CEDAR?
While most other drums are made from plywood, our drums are constructed 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. Cedar is a sacred wood to Native Americans. Legends tell that Thunderbirds only built their nests in the protected branches of cedar. Cedar is considered the blood of the people.
How sacred is plywood? You choose. We think that healing drums should be crafted with love and sacred materials. We will not compromise. We will not cut down a new tree. We believe that deforestation is a serious problem. We refuse destroy our planet. We are die-hard recyclers and admitted "tree-huggers." That is our commitment to Mother Earth, to ourselves and to you.
OCTAGON HAND DRUMS
Our one-sided hand drums come in three standard sizes. Each drum is approximately three (3) inches deep. Dimensions vary by drum, since each drum is built and sanded individually. Special sizes can be made to fit any need. Every drum comes with a free stick.For more detail, click on the images below to see the front, side and back of our cedar octagon hand drums.
12” diameter - $90.00
14" diameter - $120.00
16” diameter - $140.00
Sizes: 16", 14", 12"
Slim 3" profile
Rawhide lacing -back
WHY NO PADDED HANDLE ON OUR DRUMS?
We do not use a padded handle because Native Americans believe that the heartbeat of Mother Earth echoes through a drum. First, padding interferes with the contact between you and your drum. Caucasian drum makers often use a sheepskin handle. Of the thousands of Native Americans we have met at powwows, not a single one carried a drum with a padded handle. It defeats the purpose of drumming as prayer. Second, padded handles restrict the sounds of your drum. Our drums are famous as "scratch drums" used by Northern tribes, where you use your thumb to stop the reverberation and create a unique drumbeat. Drumming involves the whole hand, not just the drum beater.
UNBLEACHED COW HIDE
Bleaching weakens rawhide, so we use only unbleached cow hide. Why cow hide? Cheap drums will be covered with goat, pig, or deer. Those hides warp in even 5% humidity, and they also stretch and stretch, so that your drum head will never be tight. Cow hide holds up under all weather conditions, and can withstand the humidity of a sweat lodge.
We wish we could use Buffalo, but it would triple our cost, and thus your cost. Also, Buffalo have been on the species extinction list; cows have not. We believe that it is wrong to kill Buffalo to make drums when fast food restaurants slaughter cows by the billions. Haven't humans killed enough Buffalo? For these reasons we believe the finest, most affordable sound comes from unbleached cow hide. All of our hides are commercially tanned to ensure uniformity in thickness and quality.
Customize your drum with a painting by award-winning artist, Cheryl Talking Bird. See painted drums and painted totem animal shields for some examples of her artwork.
