80 



l\DI W- ui I III. PLAINS 



No aboriginal axes have been preserved bu1 they are 

 said to have been made of -tone and bone. The hatted 

 stone maul (Fig. 4) is everywhere present and we arc 



told that the ax was hatted in a similar maimer. Drill- 

 ing was performed with arrow points and wood was 

 dressed by stone scrapers. 



Though we may he >ure that the tribe- of the Plains 

 were, like those in most parts of prehistoric America, 

 living in a stone age at the time of discovery, it is 

 probable that they made some use of copper. The 

 eastern camps of the Eastern Dakota were near the 

 copper mines of Lake Superior and in 1661 Radisson, 



Fig. 32. Bone Knife. 



a famous explorer, saw copper ornaments while among 

 their villages in Minnesota. Prehistoric copper imple- 

 ments are numerous in Minnesota and Wisconsin but 

 such objects are rare within the Plains area. Vet. all 

 these implements were of pure copper and therefore too 

 soft to displace stone and bone, the Plains Indian at all 

 events living in a true stone age culture. 



Digging Stick. From a primitive point of view, 

 the digging stick is most interesting. It has been reported 

 from the Blackfoot, Gros Ventre, Hidatsa, Mandan, 

 and Dakota as a simple pointed stick, used chiefly 



