SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I927 I35 



Stone knife with beveled lateral surfaces shaped by rubbing. This 

 type of knife was found in abundance at Lyle, Washington. In the 

 Snake River valley a form of bone or horn knife supplants the 

 knife of chipped stone which prevails elsewhere in the Columbia 

 Basin except in the areas mentioned. 



The materials used as tools, or as media on which to execute art 

 designs, are characteristic of very restricted localities and vary in 

 many instances from village to village. The distinctions are the more 

 clear cut, the more ancient the site and the more free the area from 

 the influence of contiguous culture areas. It appears that the realis- 

 tic carvings of the coast Chinook and Salish, executed for the most 

 part in wood but also in stone, were copied by the tribes of the arid 

 interior who used horn or stone as a medium. In such cases the more 

 remote the village from the influence of the realistic coast art, the 

 more frequently do geometric designs occur. Some Chinookan pieces 

 were carried up the Columbia River, while objects made by the coast 

 Salish found their way across the Cascades from Puget Sound and 

 British Columbia. The ]:)resence of nephrite celts in biu'ial oft'erings 

 becomes less frequent the farther south one proceeds down the 

 Columbia River. None was found l)y the writer below the confluence 

 of the Yakima River. 



The interior Salish tribes living in the valley of the Columbia 

 north of Saddle Mountains w-ere influenced by the coast Salish, com- 

 munication being established through the Okanogan and Frazer 

 River valleys and the intervening mountain passes to Puget Sound. 

 The Shahaptian tribes were more directly influenced by the Chinook 

 of the lower Columbia Valley and have consequently a superior com- 

 mand of realistic art designs principally of animal and human figu- 

 rines in wood and horn. The so-called " Dalles culture " is nothing 

 more than a modified coast culture. 



Certain spots along the Columbia River were frequented by tribes 

 from tributary rivers, such as the Willamette, John Day. Deschutes 

 and others. These favored spots were near the falls or rapids of the 

 Columbia or of some tributary stream. Here were caught and dried 

 the salmon for the winter food supply. Here, also, was carried on 

 trade in hemp, dentalium shell (the wampum of the west), blankets, 

 and other native products, as well as in white man's trade goods ob- 

 tained from trading posts. From the Shoshonean tribes on the east 

 and from the Nez Perce Indians in Idaho came native products such 

 as tanned bison skins, tailored costumes, elbow pipes and ornaments, 

 while from the north came nephrite celts and an occasional decorated 

 northwest coast pipe. 



