ARROWPOINTS, SPEARHEADS, AND KNIVES. 847 



This may not have begun with the first moment of contact with the 

 white man. The first Indian trader may not have taken iron arrowpoints 

 or the material or tools with which to make them, but we may 

 fairly conclude he did soon after. These materials took rank in impor- 

 tance to the Indian with, if they did not precede, the glass beads and 

 brass rings which have been the proverbial currency of Indian traders. 

 There must necessarily have been a period of transition; stone arrow- 

 points would not be supplanted instantly by iron. 



Doubtless there were exceptions to the generality of their nse. Boys, 

 ainatenr hunters, degraded tribes, those living far back in the moun- 

 tains, even hunters or warriors moved by necessity or the desire to save 

 expense, may have made stone arrowpoints or spearheads after general 

 contact with the white man. 



Rev. M. Eells, in the Stone Age of Oregon,' says stone arrowpoints 

 and spearheads are scarce, and that he had seen only nine of them in 

 eight years' residence among the Indians. The Indians did not make 

 them ; they used bone. But as evidence that they were used in ancient 

 times, he says that Mr. Stevens has 3,200 of them, 6.} inches by 2 J 

 inches, down to one-half by one-fourth inch. He had found a grand 

 cache of them unearthed at Oregon City, A workshop for making 

 arrow and spearheads had been discovered at Umatilla Landing, with 

 the usual nuclei, hammers, chips, and flakes, with arrowpoints and 

 spearheads complete, incomplete, and broken, in abundance. 



Mr. J. G. Swan, speaking of the Indians of Cape Flattery,- says: 



The bow is used principally by the boys * " * to kill birds and other small 

 game; as a weapon of defense it is scarcely ever used, firearms having entirely super- 

 seded it. * * * Tiie arrowheads are of various patterns; some arc made of iron 

 wire, which is usually obtained from the rim of some old tin pan or kettle; this flat- 

 tened at the i)oint, sharpened, and a b;irb tiled on one side, and driven into the end 

 of the shaft; a stri^i of bark is wound around to keep the wood from splitting. 

 8om(! are of bone [of course the head is of wood, the same as the shaft] ; * * * 

 others again are reguhirly shaped, double-barlted, and with triangular heads of iron 

 or copper, of very neat workmanship. 



Lieutenant Niblack, U. S. 'N.,^ speaking of the Indians on the north- 

 west coast, says : 



To-day the l)ow and arrow survives only as a mpans of dispatching wounded game 

 or to save powder and ball. * * * Few bows are now seen among tlies(» Indians 

 except as toys for the children. Before the introduction of irou, arrowheads were 

 of bone, flint, shell, or copper. 



And on page 285 : 



The primitive dagger was of stone or bone. The first daggers made by the natives 

 after the advent of tlio whites were from large, flat files, and the skillful maimer in 

 which these were ground into beautiful fluted daggers challenged th(^ admiration of 

 the traders, Avho found the work as skillfully done as if by European metal-workers. 



1 Smithsonian Report, 1886, p. 289. 



'-' Smithsonian Contributions, No. 220, p. 48. 



'Report U. S. National Museum, 1888, p. 286. 



