=Lumbering and Forest Products=: Prior to contact with Europeans the
Wampanoags used stone tools for lumbering. Large trees felled with
these primitive implements were used for the manufacture of dugout
canoes.[249] Birch bark, another product of the forest, provided
the material for house coverings and containers of various sorts
as well as material for another type of canoe. As the range of the
canoe birch (_B. papyrifera_) had its southern limit at Cape Anne
on the immediate coast, the use of birch bark by the Wampanoags was
probably not so extensive as that of some of their neighbors.[250]
Nevertheless, by trade and by seeking out individuals of the species
that grew beyond their range, birch bark was obtained and used as an
alternative material for the items mentioned above.
Carved wooden bowls and spoons are said to have been a craft
specialty of the Wampanoags. Burls were selected for carving material
in order to avoid the problem of splitting along the grain when an
item was subjected to repeated wetting and drying. Small objects such
as fish hooks were sometimes made of wood, and there were other more
obvious uses such as poles for house frames, arrowshafts and handles
for tools. Bast fiber (inner bark) was used for various woven items.
A red dye was made from pine bark.[251] Turpentine and pitch were
also products of the pines.[252]
=Mining and Quarrying=: Both soapstones for bowls and pipes and
native copper for ornaments were obtained aboriginally by New England
Indian groups. So far as is known, however, the Wampanoags did none
of the extraction of these materials themselves. They obtained either
the materials or the finished products through trade.[253]
Pigments were probably obtained at various local outcroppings.
Limonite furnished yellow; hematite served for some of the reds. The
stone used for tools and weapons—quartz and slate—was also locally
occurring material.[254] Clay for potting was available in the
Plymouth area.[255]