Bone objects served practical purposes more than they did ornamental uses. Of course some bones were worked into ornaments, but more of them were in use as utility tools than otherwise. The classification of bone tools is a subject to which one must give no little thought, for the material ranges from ordinary beads to highly decorated and grooved cylinders, or tubes. Therefore, I am not fully satisfied with the classification I herewith present, and hope at a future date to improve upon it.
Bone objects in the United States were in widespread use, and they served many purposes. In the Mississippi Valley more of them were worked into beads and awls than into anything else, but on the Great Plains they were made use of for many purposes. The tips of antlers were sharpened and fastened on arrows. In the Mandan country, North Dakota, and elsewhere in the West where stone was scarce, the bones of the buffalo served as clubs, the shoulder blades as digging-tools, and the ribs were polished and ground to an edge and used as knives and scraping-tools. The teeth of carnivorous animals were mounted as ornaments, and long slender bones of the smaller animals were cut into beads. Bone and horn spoons were doubtless common in all parts of the United States.
Fig. 538. (S. 1–1.) Typical bone awls from the collection of S. D. Mitchell, Ripon, Wisconsin.
Fig. 539. (S. 2–3.) Blunt-pointed awls found with burials. Baum Village-Site, Ohio. William C. Mills’s collection.
Fig. 540. (S. about 3–4.) To the left, bone awls made from the tarsometatarsus of the wild turkey. To the right, bone needles. All from the Harness Mound, Scioto Valley, Ohio.
A larger percentage of bone awls have been recovered from village-sites than of other objects in bone, excepting beads. The ash-pits of village-sites preserved practically everything encompassed by them because of the preservative quality of ashes. Therefore, I have always believed that the proportion of bone awls to other things is no criterion as to the use of bone among the aborigines. In the caves of the Ozarks, during three seasons of exploration, we recovered upwards of a hundred bone awls. More than fifty were taken from the ashes of Kelley Cavern alone. It must be remembered that these caves, as is also true of the village-sites of central United States and the South, mark the residence place of natives where, perhaps, women predominated. Assuming that because of wars there were usually more women than men,—and I think that the early American history will bear out this statement,—the domestic arts were in excess of the other arts; and even if the persons engaged in domestic science were in the minority there would naturally be more cooking, garment-making, weaving, and general domestic science in vogue in a village or a cave or a cliff-dwelling than elsewhere. It is not surprising, therefore, that awls and hammer-stones, pestles and mortars, rough axes and hoes should predominate in such places. An unknown number of bone effigies and bone tools that must have been made and used by the ancient people have disappeared, because as in the case of textile fabrics they were not preserved unless buried in ashes.
Aboriginal man was very saving. When he killed a deer or a bear he not only made use of the meat and the hide, but also of the bones and sinews. The proof of such economy lies in any large village-site, where one finds in the ashes bones of practically every bird, animal, and fish formerly in the neighborhood. And these bones have been broken, or cut, or sawed. Some of them indicate the beginning of workmanship, many of them are broken to extract the marrow, and others are perfect. The exhibit is just such as one would expect from the camp-site of savages. After the feast was over and the bones cast out, in the ensuing days, when these bones had become more or less dry, the man, the woman, or perhaps the boy, gathered them up and worked them into the forms presented in this chapter.
The use of bones for harpoons was widespread. In fact no substance is more convenient. The skeletal remains of numerous animals, birds, and fish furnished the Indians with bones of various sizes and shapes, and it is quite likely that such bones as could be made use of were stored away, and that the aborigines selected the bone suited to their purpose and went to work on it to manufacture the harpoon, or the awl, or the ornament. Harpoons seem to have been more in use in the North than in the South, and more are found in the St. Lawrence basin, Canada, and northern New England, and New York State, than elsewhere in the United States. The same is true of the Eskimo country, where bone harpoon-points are very common. Illustrations 538, 541, 542, present four different bone harpoons.
Fig. 541. (S. 2–3.) Bone harpoon. P. D. Winship’s collection, Park Rapids, Minnesota.
Fig. 542. (S. 1–2.) (See Fig. 543 for description.)
Description of Figs. 542 and 543.
Objects of antler, bone, shell, and copper from North Dakota mounds:
a. Deer antler tines, showing perforations and notches.
b. Bone anklet, somewhat broken, but showing entire length in front.
c. Carved tine of a deer’s antler.
d. Bead made from the columella of a marine shell.
e. Pearly shell buttons or ornaments, perforated or notched; found with the anklet shown in b.
f. Flat piece of copper coiled into a bead.
g. Small marine shells perforated by grinding.
h. Pearly shell rings, probably a portion of a necklace.
i. Bone fishing-spear.
From Henry Montgomery’s collection, Toronto, Canada.
Fig. 543. (S. 1–2.)
Fig. 544. (S. 1–3.) Elk-horn spoons, from Humboldt County, California. H. K. Deisher’s collection.
It is not difficult to explain the preponderance of harpoons in the North and the scarcity of them in the South. They are essentially a cold-climate implement. In the St. Lawrence region, where they abound, nets and traps cannot be used save during summer and fall. The winter sets in early, and the spring is late. While fish were harpooned when on the spawning-beds, yet most of the harpooning was done in the winter. Even to this late date the Ojibwa Indians spear great quantities of fish in the winter season. Pickerel, pike, muscalonge are attracted by a moving bait. The Indian cuts a hole through the ice, and erects a small structure to shield himself from the wind. An effigy of a fish made of wood or bone, or in these modern times of tin, is dangled about four or five feet beneath the ice. Large fish approach this decoy, and as they are more sluggish in their movements in the winter, the Indian has no difficulty in driving the spear into such one as he wishes, before it is able to draw out of range. I suppose that the method did not vary in ancient times. Naturally, where possible, the Indians preferred to set nets or build fish-weirs. But practically all the nets and weirs of ancient times have long since disappeared.
Fig. 545. (S. 3–4.) This is a long spoon, badly decayed, but sufficiently preserved for us to determine its character. It is about six inches in length. It was found under an old building in Salem, Massachusetts, and is in the Peabody Museum. Very few bone or horn spoons, ladles, and dishes of the Indians remain, and yet we know that a great many were made and used by primitive man in the United States.
Fig. 541 illustrates a large, strong harpoon of bone. This spear has several prominent barbs. The muscalonge and sturgeon of the far North were large, strong fish and required a heavy spear to hold them. Whether the Indians of the Lake Superior region in ancient times made use of the spear with a detachable point, to which was attached a cord and float, I am unable to state. Possibly they made use of devices of that sort.
In the East and the North the harder and heavier bones, such as the horns of elk, deer, and moose, were made use of as gouges, celts, and scrapers. Numbers of these have been found at Madisonville cemetery, in the Little Miami Valley, ten miles north of Cincinnati, and also in the Iroquois sites along the Mohawk River in western New York. Mr. David Boyle, Curator of the Provincial Museum, Toronto, presents descriptions of a number of horn implements in his publications.[22]
Bones were made use of as spoons, and ladles. Numerous examples of these are not wanting in the museums. The longer, slender bones were ground and polished and pointed, and may have served as hairpins and cloak-fasteners. A splendid example of what we have considered bone hairpins was taken from the ashes in Kelley Cavern, Arkansas. This bone was found at a depth of five feet, and is nine inches long.
Fig. 546. (S. 2–3.) Beads, arrow-points, and bone fish-hooks, from the Mandan Village-Site, North Dakota.
The slender bones of turkeys and geese were often made into whistles, the medicine-men used them, and bone tubes were frequently employed by shamans in drawing the evil spirit from the bodies of the sick. Small digits were worked into necklaces. Special bones of certain animals, it is supposed, were the property of the medicine-men and were used in their incantations. The skull of the buffalo played an important part in the mythology except among Plains tribes. I shall not treat of that phase of the subject in this volume, but refer readers to the list of titles in the Bibliography, under Buffalo; which will be found to contain full descriptions of the ceremonies connected with the buffalo. In another part of this work (Volume I, pages 208–09) I refer to the importance of the buffalo to Indians through an extent of territory fifteen hundred by one thousand miles.
Fig. 547. (S. 2–3.) Stages of fish-hook manufacture. Gartner Mound, Ohio.
Fig. 548. (S. 1–1.) Typical fish-hooks found in the Baum Village-Site, Ohio.
Fig. 549. (S. about 1–3.) Andover collection. The long bones of large animals were cut or sawed into proper lengths, the openings in the ends enlarged and flint knives inserted. This figure presents eight such tool-handles. The two at the top were found in a gravel-pit in central Ohio, together with human skeletons. Flint knives lay at the end of each of these two bones. The decayed bone shown in the lower part of the picture was also found in a gravel burial and a slender flint knife rested against it. The position of the knives and the bones leaves me to conclude that these bones were knife-handles.
Fig. 550. (S. 1–3.) Bone tool-handles from the villages along the Upper Missouri River. Andover collection.
Fig. 551. (S. 1–3.) A series of bone celts from the Mandan Site, North Dakota.
Fig. 552. (S. 1–2.) Bone objects from Mandan Sites. Portions of head-dresses. (See page 154.)
Fig. 546 is interesting in that it shows not only bone beads to the left, but also three bone arrow-points (top row in the centre) and fish-hooks in process of manufacture. Professor William C. Mills published a valuable paper on the manufacture of fish-hooks.[23]
Fig. 552 A. (S. 1–3.) How the Mandans made bracelets and head-dresses. (See pages 154, 155.)
Professor Mills found in the ash-beds of the Baum Village-Site bones which had been cut down until a narrow rim on both sides remained. I show Professor Mills’s finds in Figs. 547–48.
Professor Mills’s finds of unfinished as well as completed fish-hooks enabled his museum to secure the best series of such objects in the United States.
Having split the bones and ground them down until they were thin, the Indians would cut through the objects near either end, thus producing from a split bone two fish-hooks. Or, the entire bone yielded four fish-hooks. One side is cut long, the other short, thus forming the shank and bar. In Fig. 546 the entire process is shown. The split bone, to the right, the broken bone above the perfect fish-hook. To complete fish-hooks it was necessary to round the base, sharpen the point, cut out a little more space between the shank and the point, and notch the shank in order that the line might be attached.
Fig. 553. (S. 1–2.) Mandan bone ornaments.
Something over twenty years ago, when I was living in Ohio, I received a communication from Mr. E. R. Steinbrueck of Mandan, North Dakota. He wished to begin the study of American archæology, to devote special attention to the ancient village-site of the Mandan Indians, made famous by George Catlin’s paintings and descriptions. I wrote to Mr. Steinbrueck a number of letters advising him. During the ensuing years, Mr. Steinbrueck spent many seasons in the exploration of the Mandan and other sites. His collection of bone and stone implements, amounted to about 8000 specimens.
Fig. 554. (S. 1–3.) Mandan bone objects. This figure represents some perforated bones from Mandan sites. Many similar to these have been found at Madisonville. The holes are polished on the edges, and aside from the theory that they were used to straighten arrow-shafts, no one seems to know the exact purpose of them. A few are shown in Fig. 555. Peabody Museum collection, from Madisonville, Ohio.
Mr. Steinbrueck wished to have his collection preserved in a fireproof building, and as it was through me he began collecting, he wished Phillips Academy to purchase his exhibit. Through the kindness of Professor Edward H. Williams, Jr., of Woodstock, Vermont, this disposition of the collection was brought about, and the collection is to-day on exhibition in our museum. I call particular attention to this Mandan exhibit, for the reason that it is, so far as I am aware, the best and largest collection of bone implements exhumed from one site, in America.
Suitable stone seems to have been scarce in the Mandan country, and the natives made use of the shoulder blades, ribs, and other heavy bones of buffalo, elk, and deer for various purposes, and these strong bones served them quite as well as would stone. An inspection of the illustrations of various Mandan objects will acquaint readers with the wealth of material secured by Mr. Steinbrueck.
I call particular attention to Figs. 550 to 555. In Fig. 550 are shown heavy bone handles in which were inserted small stone celts employed as scraping- and cutting-tools. This type was common on the Plains and has been described by Professor Mason and others. The handle is so strong that it would last almost a lifetime, and the Indian women needed but to sharpen the inserted celt, rather than to make a new handle.
Fig. 555. (S. 1–5.) This presents a bone hairpin, a fish-hook, a flute and harpoon, two bone celts, a perforated antler of an elk, and a long bone partially cut into bits, all of which were found in the graves at Madisonville, Ohio. Peabody Museum collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The figure of the bone celts (551) shows that nearly all of them were hollowed after the manner of Eastern stone gouges. The second specimen from the top is highly polished on the edge and there are eight places where notches have been worn into the bone. Similar wearing is noticed on the lower specimens.
The Mandans raised much corn, beans, and squashes, and the large shoulder blades of the buffalo and elk were made use of by these Indians as spades and hoes. There are more than one hundred of them in our collection.
Fig. 556. (S. 1–2.) Mandan bone ornaments.
Mr. Steinbrueck, at my request, wrote me at considerable length and sent me several books of field-notes. Particularly interesting are his descriptions of objects shown in Figs. 552, 552 A, and 553. I quote from his letter:—
“After a number of years of continuous researches in the ancient Indian village-sites on or about the Heart River and along the Missouri River, I have gradually learned to read the purpose, the use, and also, in some instances, the manufacture of certain horn and bone implements and ornaments of the Mandan Indians.”
It would appear that the late J. V. Brower and Rev. G. L. Wilson and Mr. Steinbrueck made explorations in common during several seasons.
“... On our sociable excursions, we used to find three-cornered pieces of elk-horn (Fig. 552) which showed considerable work. They were long and pointed, had a round base, showed the incision of a sharp instrument along the edges, were scraped at both sides; in short, seemed to be shaped for some purpose, which we could not guess. Probably they were intended for some kind of an awl, or some other object of use or ornament. It was strange, though, that we found such quantities of them and all in the same state of more or less finish, and still we never found an implement of a shape similar to these peculiar triangular pieces of horn. We called them ‘unfinished implements of horn, purpose unknown.’”
Fig. 557. (S. 1–2.) Bone ornaments and effigies. Three of these may represent goose heads. The bone to the right is ridged, and on the elevation are notches.
After Mr. Brower returned East, and Rev. Mr. Wilson moved away from Mandan, Mr. Steinbrueck continued investigations, and after several years had passed, came to the conclusion that the triangular pieces were discarded objects, obtained during the process of manufacture of other forms. Mr. Steinbrueck has drawn a series of outlines conveying his ideas as to the manufacture of these objects, which I reproduce in Fig. 552 A. Reference to the letters in Fig. 552 A will make clear Mr. Steinbrueck’s contentions.
Fig. 558. (S. 3–4.) Teeth of the opossum and raccoon. Harness Mound, Ohio.
Fig. 559. (S. 2–3.) To the left in Fig. 559 is an arrowpoint made of deer-horn, with a perforation for attachment to the shaft. The other two are pendants made of ocean shell. These are from the Baum Village-Site, Ohio.
Fig. 560. (S. 1–3.)
Shell crescent. Gartner Mound, Ohio. These three figures are from the collection of W. C. Mills.
“The part of the elk-horn for the bracelets was chosen just above the first prong (a). The horn was scraped all around to a smooth surface. Next, incisions were made with a flint knife, parallel to each other, up and down the horn, to the soft inside of the horn. Thus long narrow strips (b) were formed, which were easily (c) loosened from the stem. Next, the inside was smoothed down and the edges rounded off. Then, on the inside generally, not always, a groove was cut for the easier bending (a). The measure of the arm or wrist was taken and a hole bored at each end according to size of arm or wrist, and above the holes the bracelet was cut (e). We found an abundance of those short pieces (f). Then finally, there remained nothing to be done but soak the straight bracelet piece, maybe in hot bear-grease, and bend it. Most of the bracelets (g) are made in that shape and manner. There are also thinner, narrower ones, without a groove and ornamented at the ends or incised (i-i), maybe for the purpose of tying together. One of the necklaces I found, and which is among the specimens at Phillips Academy, represents a snake, one end showing the head, the other end the tail. Perfect horn bracelets are very scarce, owing to their fragility. The first I found was broken in many pieces. I gave it to Mr. Brower, who was much exalted over it, saying that that was the first complete bracelet he ever saw; and although broken, it is now restored. It is erroneous and was a mistake to state that bracelets were made from ribs of small animals. A test will prove the truth of my statement, that they all are made from horn and particularly from the elk-horn.
Fig. 561. (S. 2–3.) Bear-tusks in which pearl beads were inserted as ornaments. These are cut and polished, the bases being cut squarely off or diagonally, for what purpose is unknown. These specimens were found in various mounds, Ross County, Ohio, as were several other objects illustrated in this chapter.
“The manufacture of headgear from the buffalo, or the elk-horn, was brought about in the same manner. The buffalo-horn or the elk-horn was incised, after shaving smooth, from top to bottom, or vice versa, one incision opposite the other, thus forming two exact counterparts. Then they were cut or ornamented to fit the head and the taste of the wearer. The pieces were scraped thin and smooth from both sides, and then polished.”
Fig. 562. (S. 1–1.) Dug up by W. C. Mills from Ohio mounds, as were the specimens shown in Figs. 558 to 565.
I shall conclude the chapter on bone objects with some remarks from Mr. Charles E. Brown, concerning the distribution of bone implements in the Wisconsin-Michigan region:—
“The largest local collection of bone implements is that of Mr. S. D. Mitchell of Green Lake. It includes harpoon-heads, awls, tubes, and other articles obtained from a so-called ‘sacred spring’ into which it is thought that these and other objects were cast by early savages, probably for the purpose of propitiating some evil spirit supposed to dwell therein.
Fig. 563. (S. 1–1.) Cut bear-tusks, and tusks in which pearl beads are inserted. From Ohio mounds.
Fig. 564. (S. 3–4.) Engraved bone, Harness Mound, Ohio.
Fig. 565. (S. 1–1.) Engraved bone, Hopewell Mound, Ohio.
Fig. 566. (S. 1–1.) Engraved bone, Hopewell Mound.
Fig. 567. (S. 1–1.) Bone effigy, Hopewell Mound, Ohio.
“Bone implements and ornaments of these and other classes have also been recovered from various village-sites, refuse-heaps, and mounds. Bone awls are the most numerous. Among these are a few bone beads, scrapers, and needles. Two ribbons, probably those of the moose, were obtained from a mound at Eagle Corners. Both are transversely notched by cuts along one edge. One bears thirty-four cuts, the other thirty-three. The most casual examination ... reveals the evidence of rubbing over the projections between the notches. Dr. Frederick Starr, who has described these specimens, refers to them as ‘rattles,’ and states that ‘they not only might have been used for dance-timing, but were certainly so used.’[24] It is probable that some of our native copper perforators were once mounted in bone or antler handles. The Winnebago Indians still occasionally mount wire nails in handles of bone for use as perforators in sewing buckskin. Bone awls are also occasionally found in use among these Indians and the local Chippewa. Medicine-tubes made of sections of bone or horn were formerly employed. Pendants made of the perforated canine teeth of the bear are occasionally found in graves and on camp-sites. Mr. Richard Herrmann of Dubuque has reported the finding of two combination bone knives and spoons, several awls and arrow-points, two eagle claw ornaments, a bone needle with part of the eye intact, and a musical instrument from a mound near Garner, in Grant County.”
Dr. W. J. Hoffmann mentions the former use of bone fish-hooks and notched bone arrow-shaft smoothers among the Wisconsin Menomini. For evening strands of basswood fibre in cord-making, these Indians use the perforated shoulder blade of a deer or other animal.[25]
“Radisson found that the early Bœuf Sioux of the upper Mississippi Valley tipped their arrows with antler points. A few antler arrow-points have been found in Wisconsin. These are similar to those recovered in Ohio during the recent explorations of Dr. W. C. Mills. In the H. P. Hamilton collection is a portion of an antler which is ornamented with incised designs. It was found in the city of Manitowoc. In the same collection is a small human effigy carved from a piece of antler. Other antler objects found in Wisconsin include awls, a pendant, a tube, and several articles the exact function of which is still undetermined. Cut sections of antler are occasionally found on local village-sites. In the collection of Mr. J. P. Schumacher, at Green Bay, is a pipe made of the tip of a buffalo-horn. On its surface are several incised figures. Pieces of the tusk of a mammoth were obtained with other articles in a Grant County mound. Doubtless a much larger number of both bone and antler implements will yet be found in Wisconsin. Local archæologists have but recently turned their attention to these.”