The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1894-09-13
INDIAN SEAL HUNTERS.
With Primitive Implements They Offer
Do Better Than the White Mem


Nearly all of the crack seal hunters
of the Makah Indians are commonly
known as Neah Bay Indians.
The Indians go out upon the chase
without guns and ammunition, relying
on their prowess as spearsmen for their
success in catching the game. The
schooners will carry the regulation
sealing flag, something new in the line
of bunting, at the mast head. The
flag is square yellow and black, cut
diagonal, and foated beneath the Stars
and Stripes. 1t is to be not less than
four feet square, and is made compul-
sorry under the new regulations of the
modus vivendi. The Indians will sign
for the voyage before the United States
Indian agent at Neah Bay. They go
contendedly, knowing that anything
he does for them is for the best. One
third of the catch of the trip goes to
the schooner and two-thirds to the
hunters, and each canoe will give so
many skins to pay for the provisions
they use.
The Indian seal spears are curious
implement of the chase. They can not
be better described to those who have
ever seen the salmon spear than by
saying they look just like such a
weapon, only built much stronger and
heavier. Long fir sticks without any
knots are trimmed down and rounded
by the Indians themselves, and forms
the arrow of the spear At the lighter
or feather end the Indians fasten very
tiattened 'and curiously cut shingle-
like piece of wood, which holds the
spear plumb in its swift passage
through the air. The spear end of the
long arrow is branched by firmly bind
ing two light but hard wood sticks to
the longer stick at an angle that leaves
the two ends about seven or eight
inches apart. One of these prongs is
cut about ten inches or foot shorter
than the other, and when ready to be
thrown forth they are armed with the
sharp steel spearhead If in throw
ing the longer one misses the
mark, the next may prove better and
lind a resting. place in the flesh of the
seal. The steel spears are made
of a common file ground down and into
shape by the Indians themselves. The
barb is made by filing out piece after
the file has been ground down to the
sharpness of knife blade. 1t gets it's
proper position by inclining the process
of filing so that it extends toward the
sharp point.
Fastened to the dull end of the steel
spear are couple of pieces of elk horn
divided into halves and so bound to the
steel that socket is left between the
| two, into which the end of the spear
prong is stuck when it is to be thrown.
The steel spear is attached to the long
wooden handle by string of elk sim
ews about one and one-half yards long
and carefully wrapped in small silk
thread. AS soon as a seal is struck by
one of the spearsmen the long arrow
comes out of the socket and the steel
barb holds firmly like hook in a sal
mons mouth. The elk sinews, how
ever, form a connection with the han
die, which in turn is attached to
the hunting canoe by means of a
long cord, which is made too strong to
be broken by seal Laundering from
the end of it. If pains were not taken
to have the barb free from the handle
the seal in its flounderings would snap
it off instantly. All the hardwood
prongs of the spears brought in recent
ly by the Willapa have been bitten
and scared in dozens of places by luck
less and frantic seals in their struggles
to get away.
One popularity in the construction of
the seal spear is the manner of binding
the two hardwood prongs into the
longer stick. This is done by wrapping
very light strips of bark of species of
vegetation well known to the Indians,
but hard to acquire by the whites. 1t
is very tough fiber, and the strips are
so thin that they scarcely increase the
visible size of the sticks around which
they are bound. The white men fire.
quently pay the Indians big prices for
this bark, which is secured about Neah
Bay. The whole spear is painted a dull
red by the Indians in their crude way,
and with mixtures they make them
selves from the native extracts of the
forest When properly fixed for
throwing the spear readily bal
ances in the hand, and Capt.
Irving says the hunters will throw it
with accuracy distance of six or eight
fathoms. In the main less distances are
preferred by the hunters, who stand
up in the bows of their light cedar ca
noes, while the oarsmen squat rigidly
in the stern and paddle along over the
swells as silently as if they were
tramping barefooted on the trail of an
elk in the mountains.
The hunting canoes are no less an
object of interest than are the spears
or the spearsmen. They look as if
they would not live moment in any
kind of sea, but in the dexterous
hands of the natives they are perfectly
safe. The oarsman has his eyes about
him as well as the hunter. While one
is looking for seal the other carefully
scans the sea for swells, and he seldom
fails to be ready for one when it comes
upon his frail craft. He takes the swell
in an oblique course, never meeting il
stem on, nor does he ever allow his boat
to be caught parallel with the swells in
the trough between them. Meeting
the swell obliquely, the canoe rises like
gull over the crest and down on the