M ITERIAL CULTURE. < 



Though we may he sure that the tribes 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 Santee-Dakota were near the 

 copper mines of Lake Superior and in 1661 Radisson, 

 a famous explorer, saw copper ornaments while among 

 their villages in Minnesota. In the North American 

 Archaeological Hall may be seen a representative col- 

 lection of copper implements from Minnesota and 

 Wisconsin but such objects are rare within the Plains 



Fig. 28. Bone Knife. 



area. Yet, 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 

 in digging edible roots and almost exclusively by women. 

 (It is important to note the symbolic survival of this 

 implement in the sun dance bundle of the Blackfoot, 

 p. 110.) Some curious agricultural implements are 



