The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-09-30
HOW THE INDIANS
MADE ARROWHEADS

the plow occasionally turns up piece:
of flint, quartz and oDsidum, beau
tifully fashioned into spearpoint'
and arrowheads. In some parts of the
country they are more plentiful thar
in others; some are broken and i'm
perfect, while many are just as they
were when they came from the HAND
of unknown worker in stone. To one
with any imagination the picking up
of one of these relics, is much more
than the finding of pretty pebble,
or a crystal of quartz. 1t sets one to
wondering-wondering about the
bronze faced artist who fashioned it.
throughout the years or the centuries
it has remained hidden in the
clay; about the game it has brought
low, and about the strange people
whose homes once stood where ours
do now. If the. lifeless fragments of
flint, lying SO dead and insert in
ones palm could speak, 1t could tell
US many things we would like to
know. For a long time the process by
which the Indian could finish these
arrow-heads, with their graceful
lines and needle-like points, without
shattering the, brittle material, was
looked on as one of the lost arts.
Many theories were, advanced as to
how it could, be. done, many claim
ing that it was done by heating the
stone, and then allowing a drop of
water to fall, on the part, where it
was desired to remove a portion, and
chat the sudden cooling would cause
that part to flake off. Others con-
tended that they. were not made by
the Indians at all, but were the ham
diwork of a race that occupied the
country long before the Indians ap-
peared on the scene, and that he on
Iy picked them up ad used them oyerF
again. When questioned, the Indians
often disclaimed any knowledge as
to how they were made, in fact, they
were not inclined to discuss the mat
ter with the white man, seeming to
feel that it was a secret of theirs,
and an outsider had no right to pry
into the matter. So it was their
policy when questioned to invest the
whole business with an air of mys-
terry, and let it go at that. But the
patient, plodding ethnologists of the
Smithsonian Institution set about
clearing up the mystery, and right
well have they succeeded; and now
there is no more doubt as to who
made the arow-heads and spear
points that the plow turns up; and
there is no guesswork as to how
they were made. And the findings of
the observers are the results of wit
Messing the actual work of hanging
a fragment of stone into a finished
arrowhead. They found that there
were several methods used by differ
ent tribes in various parts of the
country-all Of them simple when
understood. There were three pro-
cesses employed: first, that of fax
ing with a stone hammer and punch;
second, that Of shaping the article
by free-hand pressure, using a large
bone daker; third, that Of breaking
out notches by the pressure Of
small groved ffaker. In every in
stance, where an arrowhead was be-
ing shaped, the piece of material
was held in the palm of the left
hand, the hand being protected by a
piece Of thick, soft buckskin. It
would have been impossible to have
done the work without breaking the
material, if it had rested on any
hard, ungiving substance, but the
soft buckskin, in the yielding palm
saved it from the breakage.
Maj. ]. W. Powell of the United
States army in 1869 gives very
clear account Of the process of max
ing an arrowhead, which has been
published in a bulletin of the Bureau
ef American Ethnology, which is
given. below in the Majors own
words: '1n a little valley north of
the Minta Mountains, a tribe of
Shoshina Indians were found still
manufacturing stone arrow-heads,
these were made from masses of