88 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETEm-QLOGY [Bull. 192 



shaped sheets, rounded or pointed at both ends and constricted 

 in the middle. They were symmetrical, and thus did not conform 

 to the common shape on the Northwest Coast, if our informants are 

 correct. Coppers were as long as the forearm, the whole arm, or 

 the neck and arm together. The natives had also heard of spear 

 heads, knives, and sea otter harpoon arrowheads of copper, and said 

 that their ancestors could make copper "as hard as steel," presumably 

 referring to a process of repeated heating and pounding. 



Discovery of native copper and of methods of working it were 

 ascribed by tradition to the Atna of the Copper River. The first 

 copper was supposed to have been brought to Yakutat by the ancestors 

 of the K'^ackqwan sib who emigrated from the vicinity of Chitina 

 on the Copper River. Archeological specimens show that copper was 

 worked by simple techniques, such as hammering, cutting or scoring 

 with a chisel, bending, and grinding. Many pieces exhibit a laminated 

 texture, or are flat on one surface and slightly convex or faceted on 

 the other, owing to pounding. 



The various types of copper implements and ornaments are described 

 in the appropriate sections below. In addition to these pieces, there 

 are three scraps of copper from Old Town III and one from Old 

 Town II. The distribution of all the copper objects (table 4) suggests 

 that while native copper was relatively scarce during the earliest 

 period of occupation, it became more common in the latest. 



OBJECTS OF IRON 



Nails and spikes and other scraps of iron, obviously obtained directly 

 from the Whites, were found at Diyaguna'Et and Nessudat. At the 

 latter site there were also a straight iron knife blade, probably of 

 commercial manufacture, and an iron musket (?) ball, 2.7 cm. in 

 diameter. Of native manufacture were a large double-edged dagger 

 from Diyaguna'Et (fig. 13, 6), an ulo-shaped scraper from Nessudat, 

 and an arrowhead from Shallow Water Town (site 20 on Little Lost 

 River). These are obviously all copies of articles originally made 

 of native copper. 



The more old-fashioned natives at Yakutat still make their own 

 ulos, scrapers, fleshers, and blades for crooked knives of iron, and 

 use files as material from which to shape small adz blades and barbed 

 heads for seal and fish harpoons (fig. 13, c). Our informants disagreed 

 as to whether iron nails or spikes had ever been shaped into small 

 barbed harpoon arrowheads for sea otter. 



Of greater interest than recent objects made of trade iron, are the 

 19 pieces of iron found at Old Town (see table 4), for these were 

 almost certainly derived from driftwood or wreckage (pi. 4, except i). 

 Our informants reported that iron was known long before the first 



