METALLIC IMPLEMENTS OF NEW Y(niK INDIANS 11 



wliicL tlu'Y lav down their cliildren; and llies<' little bits of copper 

 which they were carrying away, are the playthings and diversions 

 of savage children, who play together with little stones." One 

 said it was the Thnnder si)oke; one the god Misfiihizi; another 

 the water men. Two Indians died on the way home, the others 

 soon after, and no one dared visit tlie floating island again. 



A friend of the writer, the late Dr P. R. Hoy, of Racine Wis. 

 pnblished two papers in 1880 on the important questions, Hoio 

 und hif whom were the copper implements made? The first paper he 

 read in 187C, the second in 1882. That they were not cast he 

 showed, because the aborigines could not jjroduce the heat re- 

 quired, but copper could be softened by judicious applications of 

 heat and cold. He thought that implements were hammered or 

 pressed into shape in stone molds, and made successful experi- 

 ments. Lastly, he thought most natiye copper articles were 

 made after the white men came, a conclusion not so easily proved. 

 His arguments will not be reproduced here, but some of his facts 

 will be mentioned. 



Copper articles were made near Lake Superior for export and 

 trade elsewhere. In 1882 there were found 20 copper imple- 

 ments close together, under a small pile of stones at the Sault 

 Ste Marie. In the lot were six awls from 3 to inches long, 

 fiye kniyes of yarious sizes, and 10 axes, hammers and chisels. 

 These must haye been made for trade. For recent use he cites 

 "witnesses to the copper implements used by the modern Chippe- 

 wa s and Winnebagoes. One Indian agent certified that when he 

 first came among the latter, " many of them carried lances 

 headed with copper, and it was quite common to see arrows 

 headed with copper." These points may have been like those 

 used by the Iroquois 250 years ago. Out of over a hundred 

 mounds opened near Racine none contained copper. Among hun- 

 dreds of natiye copper implements in the Perkins collection not 

 one came from a mound. This led him to conclude that such 

 articles were later than the mound builders. 



Great quantities of native copper-ornaments have been found 

 in Ohio mounds. Mr Warren K. Moorehead took three or four 

 thousand spool-shaped ornaments out of the Hopewell mounds 



