The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-02-25
INDIAN AKRow-HEADs.
The Secret Of Their Manufacture Almos
Unknown.

Unknown.
J. C. Steele in Portland Oregonian
The beautiful arrow-heads of the Column
bia and Snake rivers are objects of increas-
ing curiosity. Since writing my first COM
munication the prices paid in Eastern
markets have more than doubled but have
not sold any as curios, from the reason
that in the effort to learn the secret of
how the work was done the majority of
those / have have been worked over or re-
touched more or less. Unfortunately this
was done before understood that many
of the curious and seemingly crude forms
were representations of birds, fishes and
beasts. Before going to Cello l had
noted the leaf-shaped arrowhead.
There my attention was called to the
fish-shaped, which / had taken to be
clumsy imitation of the leaf. There also |
found beautiful owls head arrow point,
and recalled to mind that had spoiled
dozens of them, thinking them to be UNI
finished work. Soon after found repre-
sentation Of the seal and lizard and the
heads of various animals, such as the doe
and bison. ]. NJ. Lindsey, of This town,
thought upon reading my last article that
it required vigorous Imagination to see
these things, but now he is convinced that
real attempts to initiate many animals,
etc., were made. Other questions are often
asked by the curios regarding the origin of
these arrow-heads. When were they
made? Who made them? What were
these tiny arrow-heads made for? etc.
The answers to these questions are partly
conjecture. Arrow-heads have always
been made by semi-civilized aboriginal
races, and many barbarous races have
learned the art. Some have made them of
bone and iron, but many more made flint
arrow-heads. 1t remained for these races
to make them of petritied wood, obsidian,
Arizona topaz (Which is simply obsidian),
jasper, chalcedony, agate, carnelian, onyx,
glass (the Piute Indians will make glass
arrow-heads). and other beautiful and I'M
common material. Not having flint, they
wrought in precious and semi-precious
stones. DR.. Priestly conjectures, and
partly establishes that the Indians of this
Coast are all of Asiatic origin, and
have swept down by success
siye migrations, in wave after wave,
from the North. That they moved, as for
a long period the people of Asia moved,
towards Europe, tribe after tribe and race
after race. OF course, some would be more
civilized than others, and could make bet
ter weapons of war and of the chase. 9th
ers, more peaceful and still more civilized,
would make weapons for beauty rather
than utility.
Such were the Zuni Indians, race of
cliff-dwellers, who are described by late
magazine writer as having been peaceful,
agricultural and possessors of small
arrow-heads.
We do not know that any living race
made the tiny arrow-heads found in such
numbers on the borders of the Columbia.
The work indicates plenty of time-the
patient skill of race long trained in
peaceful pursuits-atrained hand and eve,
and even generations of trained workers,
in which the skill came down from father
to son or from daughter to daughter. 1t
may be set down as fact that race of
hunters, rowing from place TO place. did
not make the smallest and most beautiful
of the arrow-heads found here. Scat
tered along the banks of this river have
been found idols and other archaeological
curiosities of some prehistoric race,
much more civilized than the races
now found here. 1t is more than suppos-
able that this country was for period held
by a race similar to the Zuni Indians, but
Dc tIsS NAAits bSIS WSiS "a DdSdtJ lnSV Jug
into the alkali hills or made houses of
wood, such as found by Lewis and Clarke
nearly 100 years ago lower down upon the
Columbia. Occasionally now, from the
sides of the alkali cliffs near the Columbia.
beautiful arrow-heads are found in heaps
also lovely mortars and pesties worked over
in fancy designs. None of the rougher and
cruder are found in such situations. as far as
i know. They are found nearer the river
where the later races of hunters pitched
their tents. Their rougher weapons were
fashioned upon the stone and by the stone
lying close around, or perhaps by bone
also. As both races used the same fishing
ground, the remains of both races are
found side by side. These larger and
coarser weapons are often found unpol-
ished. showing that the action of the wind
and sand had not time to complete their
work. OF course scattered over the hills
around are found the large and coarse as
we'll as the fine and beautiful arrow-heasis.
There are certain peculiarities about
these finely worked arrow-heads that show
In sharp contrast with those made al a
later time. One is that the material used
must have been soft enough to cut readily
with the tool used. 1t acted like plow in
soft soil, cutting in and rolling out a fur.