de Laguna] ARCHEOLOGY, YAKUT AT BAY AREA, ALASKA 131 



the central Northwest Coast), and from the Coast Sahsh area. There 

 are apparently leaf -shaped and triangular forms, and bjisalt and slate 

 were the materials most commonly used. On the southern Northwest 

 Coast, chipped blades and points are of great antiquity (M. W. Smith, 

 1950, pp. 17 &., 35; King, 1950, pp. 13 ff.; Borden, 1962). 



HARPOONS 



BARBED HARPOON HEADS WITH TANG 



Detachable barbed heads with tang from the Yakutat area have 

 been divided into two groups on the basis of size. The larger, over 10 

 cm. in length, were identified by informants as heads for harpoons 

 used in taking seal, porpoise, sea lion, and salmon ; smaller heads, under 

 6.5 cm., were arrowheads for sea otter. Although our informants had 

 vague traditions about a two-piece socketed toggle harpoon head (for 

 fish?) and were familiar with its Tlingit name (cf. de Laguna, 1960, 

 pp. Ill, 112, pi. 8, b, c), they had never seen any and we found no 

 archeological examples. 



Heads with tang traditionally had three (or four) barbs on one 

 edge, but none of our archeological examples had more than two, 

 although some specimens had probably been reshaped after a break. 

 A few heads for seal or salmon harpoons are still being made of iron 

 files (fig. 13, e) or commercial copper. They are from 15 to 25 cm. 

 long, with two to four barbs, and may or may not have a line hole. 

 The tang is set directly in the end of a 10- to 12-foot shaft, preferably 

 of cedar, because this floats better than spruce. The fore-end of the 

 shaft is wrapped with cord or wire to prevent the socket from splitting. 

 The line from the barbed head is usually hitched around the fore-end 

 of the shaft and brought down near the butt, where it is again hitched. 

 The salmon harpoon is thrust, and the line is made fast to the shaft 

 which has a plain butt. The harpoon used for sea mammals is thrown, 

 usually from the canoe, with the left hand holding the middle of the 

 shaft and the forefinger of the right hand resting in a groove across 

 the expanded and flattened butt. The end of the harpoon line was 

 formerly tied to a sealskin float, or might be held in the hand, but in 

 either case was so attached to the shaft that the latter would float 

 away when the game was struck. Now seals are shot with rifles, and 

 the harpoon, if used at all, is employed like a gafT hook to retrieve the 

 carcass. None of our informants had heard of a tin-owing board. 

 Although Niblack (1890, pi. xxvii, fig. 127, a, b) illustrates a throwing 

 board from Sitka, he reports that "The Tlingit are not known to have 

 used the thro wing-stick . . . ." When hunting sea mammals in the 

 open water, the Yakutat people used the small canoe \vith forked prow 

 (Birket-Smith and de Laguna, 1938, pi. 11, 8; Grinnell, 1901, pp. 



