104 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 192 



cupped, semilunar pieces of iron, with or without a wooden handle. 

 An iron blade of this kind was found at Nessudat. 



This small shell knife or scraper, later (?) copied in metal, seems to 

 have been more important on the northern and central Northwest 

 Coast than the ordinary ulo \vith larger, flat blade. Thus, mussel- 

 shell knives for cutting meat and fish are recorded ethnologically 

 from the Tlingit, and were found archeologically at Daxatkanada 

 (de Laguna, 1960, p. 110, pi. 9, n). They are known from the Haida, 

 Tsimshian, Kwaldutl, Bella Coola, Nootka, and Coast Sahsh (Drucker, 

 1950, Traits 106, 176; Barnett, 1939, Traits 266, 248, 348). The 

 mussel-shell scraper for bark and skins is known from the Tlingit, 

 Haida, Tsimshian, and Kwakiutl (Drucker, 1950, Traits 262 and 

 778). The Coast Sahsh used it for sldns but preferred clamshells 

 for bark, and also used shell scrapers for fibers (Barnett, 1939, Traits 

 274, 543, and 762). Mussel-shell knives and scrapers appear at some 

 sites in Coast Salish territory: Cattle Point (especially the Maritime 

 Phase), Locarno Beach I, and especially at Whalen Farm I (King, 

 1950, p. 59; Borden, 1950, pp. 15, 20, 24). 



The Copper Kiver Eyak used clamshells as knives and as scrapers 

 for dehairing skins (Birket-Smith and de Laguna, 1938, pp. 75, 90). 

 The Chugach used mussel shells for dehairing hides and clamshells 

 for scraping bark (Birket-Smith, 1953, fig. 17, c, pp. 74 f.). The 

 Chugach, Eyak, and Yakutat presumably share in the use of these 

 shell implements because of their close contacts with the Northwest 

 Coast Indians. If we can trust the implications of Tlingit Hnguistic 

 usage which apphes the word "mussel shell" to true ulos as weU as 

 to similarly shaped knives and scrapers, regardless of their material, 

 these tools must have been made of shell for a long time. The scrapers 

 are particularly associated with securing the sweet edible inner bark 

 of the hemlock and spruce, and it is interesting that of the groups 

 on the Northwest Coast and southwestern Alaska who had access to 

 such bark, the Nootka are almost unique in making no use of it 

 for food. 



CROOKED KNIVES (?) 



It is reasonable to suppose that some of the broken copper and iron 

 knife blades from Old Town II and III were for crooked knives, since 

 this type of carving knife has been recently very popular at Yakutat, 

 as well as among other Northwest Coast peoples, the Alaskan Eskimo, 

 and interior Indians. For example, the Chugach reported that they 

 formerly made a crooked knife with copper blade. While the true 

 crooked knife required a curved blade of metal, it probably developed 

 from a prototype made with a stone blade set at or near the end of a 

 long curved handle. A type of crooked knife was also made from 



