HOFFMAN! 



MODERN ARROWPOINTS 



283 



so-called old Spanish trail; at Cottonwood creek, the headwaters of 

 Corn creek, and at Las Vegas — both streams draining into Colorado 

 river — in sontliern Nevada. Also, the Chemehnevi Indians on Cotton- 

 wood island, in Colorado river, about 30 miles north of the Mohave, 

 and on the north bank of Colorado river near the month of Rio Virgen, 

 where were also some Painte from Moapa reservation, in southern 

 Nevada. Among both of these tribes knives of stone, with short 

 wooden handles, were observed. Similar specimens were collected by 

 Major J. W. Powell, at Kaibab, southern Utah, illustrations of which 

 are presented in figures 52 and 53. On the great 

 plateau in Arizona we noted the same to occur to a 

 limited extent among the Shivwits, a Shoshonean 

 tribe, and also among the Walapai, of Tuman stock. 

 But more abundantly were stone arrows found in 

 use among the Apache, at Camp Apache on the 

 upper waters of Salt river. 



The manufacture of arrowpoints was observed 

 only near the mouth of the Rio Virgen, among the 

 Chemehuevi, by whom stone knives also were made. 

 In the latter implement a triangular piece of stone — 

 resembling a large arrowhead without notches — con- 

 stituted the blade, being secured to the end of a 

 wooden handle by means of a vegetal gum and care- 

 ful MTapping with pieces of sinew. 



A large part of southern Nevada is exceedingly 

 arid, the flat range deserts being devoid of vegeta- 

 tion and literally strewn with a great variety of sili- 

 cious minerals fractured in flakes, conchoidal pieces, 

 and spliuters of every conceivable form. These 

 afford an inexhaustible and convenient supply of 

 material for the primitive arrow-maker, requiring 

 little labor for final shaping. The shaping of the 

 points and the chipping of the cutting edges were 

 effected by first taking a piece of buckskin with 

 which to grasp the flake, the latter being securely 

 held between the tips of the fingers and the edge or 

 base of the thumb, the narrow edge of the flake protruding, then flaking 

 by pressure with a piece of bone or a bear's claw mounted on a short 

 wooden handle. The flaking instrument, while being held against the 

 edge of the flake so as to get a grip and prevent slipping, was steadily, 

 but forcibly, directed upward at right angles to the axis of the edge, and 

 slightly backward and toward the left: — that is, in the direction of the 

 base of the arrowhead when working along the one side, and toward 

 the intended point when flaking along the other. The triangular pieces 

 of chert, chalcedony, and jasper used were somewhat larger than the 

 average arrowpoiut and were set into a notch cut in the anterior 



; ), 



ft 



Fig. 53— Ute stoue knife. 



