Traditional Wilderness Skills Expert Jim Miller
Jim is one of the nation's leading authorities on the study and application of traditional skills and crafts. The Port Huron, Michigan native discovered the beauty and essence of the natural world at an early age and has spent countless hours studying the skills of our ancestors in the woods, fields and streams throughout the Great Lakes region. Miller has written many articles on traditional skills and crafts, which have appeared in publications such as Wilderness Way, Michigan Wilderness Journal, Woods 'n Water News, Whispering Winds Magazine and the Bulletin of Primitive Technologies. He is perhaps best known for his all-natural brain tanning method of producing buckskin without the use of toxic chemicals. Skins tanned through Miller's process were used in the movie Thunderheart and supplied to the craftsmen of the movie The Indian in My Cupboard. His containers, hand-made from birch bar in the design of the Woodland Indians are featured at historic Fort Mackinaw.