CONCLUSIONS AS TO CHIPPED IMPLEMENTS
We have finished describing the chipped implements, and it is proper to
offer some conclusions and deductions. If one will walk through the
halls of the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, or the Smithsonian Institution
at Washington, or the Field Museum of Natural History at Chicago, one
will observe that chipped objects are more numerous than any other class
of artifacts on exhibition. Personally, I have examined sites in twenty
states, and I saw but one section of the country where broken pottery
exceeded chipped objects in quantity. That was the Chaco region in
northern New Mexico and the San Juan Valley. Elsewhere spalls, flakes,
discs, and broken chipped implements exceeded axes, pottery, or any
other class of prehistoric artifacts. When we counted the specimens in
the Andover Museum, November 10, 1906, we found that out of 55,928
objects, more than thirty-two thousand were of the chipped class. Our
collection is general, representing most of the states in this country.
The count indicated not only that chipped objects were more numerous
than any other division, but that they were more numerous than all
others combined.
The range in chipped objects is from the minute arrow-heads found on an
island at Moccasin Bend, Tennessee (near Chattanooga) to large obsidian
blades from California, or large unfinished chert implements on
exhibition in the Peabody Museum, Cambridge. I have never measured these
immense objects seen at Cambridge, but some of them appear to be fully
thirty to thirty-five inches in length and the weight may be from ten to
twenty pounds. One may suppose that when these large, roughly chipped,
flint, oval-shaped objects were worked down, the completed form would be
similar to those long, slender dagger- and sword-like objects on
exhibition in the Missouri Historical Society and the Tennessee
Historical Society collections.
What impresses me most is the skill of the ancient worker in flint—his
ability to reduce the rough, unfinished objects of such size to the
completed form.
Contrasted with these are the minute points, varying from one fourth to
two thirds inches in length, which are found at Moccasin Bend,
Tennessee. Colonel Young has made a large collection of these and there
are numbers on exhibition in our Andover Museum. Why the aborigines left
such numbers of delicate points, which in workmanship quite equal those
of the Willamette Valley, Oregon, must remain a mystery. Possibly these
were left on the island as “spirit offerings,” as in the case of the
finely chipped objects found by Professor Holmes in the spring at Afton,
Indian Territory.
The largest barbed or shouldered chipped specimen I have seen is in the
possession of a lady near Bainbridge, Ohio. It is seventeen inches in
length, and of pink and white quartz.
As has been remarked elsewhere in this book, such objects as the
Tennessee “swords,” and the other unusual forms in obsidian from
California and from the Hopewell altars, defy classification. In form,
they may be included along with the rough turtleback, and crude knife,
and highly finished knife, under “I. Type 1, without stem,” of the
Nomenclature Committee’s classification.
Readers are requested to glance at all the illustrations presented and
observe that the highly specialized barbed and notched implements may be
arranged: (_a_) notches parallel to the base; (_b_) notches diagonal to
the base; (_c_) notches on either side and in the base. Also that there
is a distinct type with sides parallel or convex for half the length of
the specimen, and that the point is sharply narrowed down, forming an
appreciable angle to the sides of the specimen.
The harder materials, such as quartz, quartzite, and argillite,
frequently reach a high state of perfection. But as a rule the less
refractory the material, the finer the workmanship. Thus, it is natural
that the points found throughout the eastern Alleghenies, in New
England, New York, and Pennsylvania are not as highly finished as those
of the central Mississippi basin. And again, the flint of the
Mississippi basin, while beautifully worked, is not, on the whole, of as
high average as that of the Columbia Valley. Yet the small points from
Moccasin Bend, Tennessee, the “sun-fish spears” of Greene County, Ohio,
the ceremonial “swords” of Tennessee, equal anything found on the
Pacific Coast. While this is true, there are many crude implements in
the Mississippi Valley for every finely worked object. But because of
the predominance of obsidian, agate, carnelian, and agatized wood—all
which materials are easily worked and of bright color—the Indians west
of the Plains were able to chip exquisite projectile points and knives,
that in the average are higher in workmanship than elsewhere. Had the
Mississippi Valley tribes possessed as fine material as the natives from
the Columbia Valley, I think that their specimens would have been just
as well made. However, the Pacific Coast furnishes nothing better than
those shown in Figs. 213 and 214.
Although chipped implements have been placed in a class by themselves, a
few of them could be fitted into other divisions. A small polished stone
celt may have been used in hide-dressing even as was a chipped flint
scraper. Occasionally, as in the Ozark region, axes or hatchets were
made of flint, and notched and hafted somewhat after the fashion of
Eastern grooved axes, yet it was not thought best to place chipped axes
in the same class with grooved and polished axes.
The range in form and material, in size and general character, is
remarkable. I have said more than once in this book that chipped
implements of a given locality exhibit a certain individuality. I repeat
this observation purposely because I have heard it stated, by those who
should know better, that chipped implements are more or less alike the
world over. It would be as accurate for one to say that because leaves
grow on trees and serve the same purpose, therefore, all leaves are of
the same form.
To one who has examined chipped implements in a perfunctory manner they
will appear more or less alike, just as to him who is not a botanist,
leaves convey no more information than that they are leaves. Yet he who
is interested in the technology of flint implements will become
proficient after a few years of work, and may distinguish the
arrow-points of one section from those of elsewhere. Such a student will
observe that there are at least thirty already known and localized
types. It is probable that this number will be expanded, as we study
localities more carefully.
In the following pages I refer to materials of which implements are made
and to certain illustrations in my text. If readers will examine the
figures cited and compare the variations and form between one part of
the country and another, the distribution of these types will be made
clear.
[Illustration:
FIG. 213. (S. 1–3.) From Trigg County, Kentucky, and Stewart County,
Tennessee. These adjoining counties are divided by the Cumberland
River. B. H. Young’s collection.
]
The New Hampshire form of chipped implements is seen in quartz,
quartzite, chert, porphyry, slate, and other materials. In quartz, the
difference is not great between New England and the South. But there are
forms of slate spears or lance-heads found in New England that do not
occur elsewhere, whether the same materials are in use or not. Note
Figs. 88 and 100 which present typical New England forms. Passing west
from New England there is little change in character until one crosses
the Hudson, and then we have the Delaware and New Jersey, long slender
forms chiefly in jasper, chert, argillite, and a few in quartz. North,
in New York and Canada, in the Iroquois country, there is much black
chert, some white quartz and jasper, and a multitude of the triangular
or war arrow-heads. Illustrations of New Jersey types are in Figs. 64,
90, and 201. About Lake Champlain there was much travel and trade in
ancient times, and not only New England but also the western New York
forms are present. Types are shown in Fig. 194.
In the _American Anthropologist_ for October-December, 1909 (vol. 2, no.
4, p. 607), Professor G. H. Perkins, of the University of Vermont,
describes the Lake Champlain types.
Although resembling the chipped points or knives in their general form,
certain smooth objects are found which he observes are quite different
in material from the average; being ground and not chipped. Professor
Perkins states: “These represent a class of implements which are found
on both sides of Lake Champlain. They are all made from slate, red,
purple, or drab, such as occurs abundantly in this region. The use of
these objects is rather problematical. They are almost always well made,
the surface is smooth and almost polished, the edges are sharp and do
not indicate that the tool had been severely treated. And yet the
material is not very hard and is very brittle, and some of the specimens
(knives?) are slender. One is nine inches long and an inch and a half at
the widest part; it would easily break, and there are other specimens
nearly as fragile.... The greater number are three or four inches long
and of varying width. All are stemmed, and usually the stem is notched
on each side. In the collection at Burlington there are more than thirty
of these objects, and a smaller number in the state collection at
Montpelier.”
Leaving New York, passing south into the great Chesapeake region, the
slate points of New England and the jasper of New Jersey have
disappeared. Instead we have chert, quartzite, argillite, rhyolite,
calcareous quartzite, and the peculiar modeled white and pink quartzite.
Specimens from this region are illustrated in Figs. 40, 86, and 92. It
is quite easy to recognize them, as reference to the plates will prove.
[Illustration:
FIG. 214. (S. 1–1.) Drill. Spears. Dr. H. M. Whelpley’s collection.
Presented as beautiful examples of American art in flint.
]
The number of flint implements in the State of Pennsylvania is
surprising. The range is greater than that found in any other section of
the country. Pennsylvania types are shown in Figs. 82, 83, 94, and 114.
Professor E. H. Williams, Jr., has called my attention to the broad
distribution of quartzite and argillite and to the fact that many shades
in color and variation of texture are to be observed in these two
materials.
I regret that it is not possible to present a series of colored plates
illustrating the various color shades of the same material. By that
means I would emphasize what I wish to convey to readers of “The Stone
Age.”
We cross the Alleghenies, passing through West Virginia into Ohio, where
quartz has disappeared (save an occasional stray), and we find yellow
and brown chert along the Ohio River, where Eastern and Southern tribes
often traveled. Rude implements are more numerous along the Ohio River,
on both sides, than in the interior in the states bordering that stream.
(See Fig. 50.) But the presence of Flint Ridge enabled the natives to
employ as fine material for their implements as is to be found in
America. The rude types of the East and the South, save as stated above,
have disappeared and the beautiful handiwork of the most skillful
manipulators of flint and chalcedony are to be found everywhere. (See
Figs. 101, 115, 116, 129, and 200.)
On crossing the Ohio River and passing through Kentucky and Tennessee,
one encounters yet another section wherein the implements may be
separated from those of elsewhere. Less quarry flint is in use, and more
of nodular flint, both brown and gray, black and blue, was made use of
by the prehistoric tribes. (See Figs. 74, 137, and 179.) In this region
large problematical forms, commonly called “swords” and “daggers,” also
flint effigies and remarkable leaf-shaped implements, slightly notched,
are to be found. (See Figs. 159, 160, and 161, 162.) A few of the latter
have strayed into Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan, but they are, as a
rule, Tennessee-Kentucky types. Such forms are no more a resemblance to
New England types than is the leaf of the pawpaw tree like that of the
maple.
South of Tennessee the chipped implements of Georgia, Louisiana (see
Figs. 59, 87, 112, and 140), Arkansas, and western Mississippi are
jasper, yellow chert, quartz, and peculiar milk-colored quartzite, often
variegated with blood-red veins; also ferruginous chert. Most of these
types are small. East, along the Gulf, in Florida and South Carolina,
the implements are ruder, of larger size, and usually of a rough chert.
The finer spears and knives are made of a beautiful translucent yellow
flint. Where this is found I am unable to state. Stone of suitable kind
is rare in Florida. The Florida, the lower Mississippi, and Tennessee
regions are separate and distinct as to their chipped implements. Of
course, there are duplications of types, as in any section of the
country, but speaking broadly each section is to be differentiated from
the others, and any man who maintains the contrary has not studied the
subject in all its details, which, by the way, are multitudinous.
In the far North, in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan (see Figs. 72,
96, and 131), there is a quarry of peculiar granulated quartzite
commonly known as “sugar quartz,” of which many implements are made.
There is also a beautiful milk-colored variation of quartzite. The
implements are of all sizes and types, the spear-heads being broad and
of delicate finish.
Mr. Charles E. Brown, chief of the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum,
says of the types in the Superior-Michigan country:—
“The flint implements of this region embrace nearly all of the numerous
forms common to the Ohio Valley and the Upper Mississippi Valley States.
In beauty of material and workmanship they are the equal of any produced
elsewhere. Many thousands of arrow- and spear-points, knives,
perforators, and scrapers have been collected from the fields, workshop-
and village-sites of the state. A small number of hammer-stones, saws,
spades, hoes, celts, and objects of unknown use have also been obtained.
Flint blanks, discs, and unfinished, broken, and rejected articles may
be collected from every local workshop-site. Caches or hoards of blanks,
or of finished implements, or of a mixture of both, have been unearthed
in many localities. These contain from a few to several hundred
specimens. They have been recovered from peat-bogs, the margins of
springs, the banks of streams and lakes, beneath the roots of trees,
beneath rocks, and in other places. Large numbers of flint implements
have occasionally been found with burials in mounds or graves.
“Chert of a suitable quality occurs in many localities in Wisconsin in
strata or in nodules and also in the glacial drift. Of this local
material the greater number of our flint implements are manufactured.
Quartzite is quite widely distributed in Wisconsin, and this stone was
also much utilized in implement making. It occurs in a variety of
beautiful colors, from white to bluish or greenish gray, and from light
brown through various shades of brown to a rich orange, and from a flesh
color to a bright carmine. Implements made of light brownish quartzite
are the most common and most widely distributed. Like other stone
implements, Wisconsin quartzites present all grades of workmanship and
finish. The majority are of ordinary workmanship, while others are
finely or beautifully chipped. What agate and obsidian artifacts are to
the West, quartzites are to Wisconsin. Quartzite quarries of small
extent have been found at several points in the state. Mr. William H.
Ellsworth of Milwaukee is the owner of an especially choice collection
of quartzite implements.
“In the Fox River Valley are obtained numbers of arrow-points and other
implements made of the rhyolite which occurs there. Implements made of
quartz are found in the same region and in smaller numbers elsewhere.
Implements made of chalcedony, agate, jasper, slate, sandstone,
limestone, and other stone are also found in Wisconsin.
“There is evidence to show that a considerable traffic in the finer
qualities of flint and other materials desired for the manufacture of
arrow- and spear-points, knives, etc., was carried on in prehistoric
times with tribes in outlying and distant regions. Excursions may also
have been made to points for the purpose of quarrying such stone. Thus
blue and brownish hornstone appears to have found its way to Wisconsin
over the trails from the quarries or deposits in Ohio and Indiana in the
form of blanks, discs, and nodules. Some finished implements were
probably also imported. Thousands of implements made of this hornstone
are widely distributed throughout Wisconsin. The choice ivory white and
pinkish flint appears to have come from Illinois or regions farther to
the south. Black flints entered from the same direction. Some of the
beautiful tortoiseshell-colored chalcedony so frequently employed here
may have been imported from localities in Minnesota or North Dakota. A
small number of obsidian implements have been recovered from mounds in
southwestern Wisconsin and from fields and sites elsewhere in the state.
Mr. Publius V. Lawson has published a list of some of these.
“There is much yet to be learned concerning the materials, extent and
direction and causes of this early inter-tribal commerce of the Upper
Mississippi Valley. The present lack of a greater knowledge is largely
due to the lack of state organization and intelligent coöperation on the
part of archæologists and students in the outlying states of Michigan,
Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota.
[Illustration:
FIG. 214_A_. (S. 1–1.) Spear-point of agate from a mound in Ramsey
County, North Dakota. H. Montgomery’s collection.
]
“Owing to the time and toil required to carefully examine the great
number of both public and private collections now existing and being
developed in Wisconsin, studies of the distribution of the numerous
local forms of flint implements have but been begun. It is, however,
possible to venture a few general statements concerning them. Thus
certain forms of arrow- and spear-points are found commonly in most
districts of the state, some are of much more common occurrence in
certain areas than in others, some appear to be limited in their
distribution to only certain restricted areas, and others are of
infrequent or rare occurrence everywhere. About Aztalan, in Jefferson
County, and in the region of the Madison lakes, there are obtained
specimens of a small notched triangular point which is also occasionally
provided with a deeply notched base. But very few examples of these
delicate and beautiful flint implements appear to have been found
elsewhere. In the latter region is found a small barbed point of choice
workmanship, with truncated barbs, and frequently with serrated edges.
It is wholly unknown or of very rare occurrence in most parts of
Wisconsin. Blue hornstone knives of the peculiar diamond shape have been
found sparingly by single examples or in caches, in many localities in
southern Wisconsin.
“A lack of space forbids the description of other forms of unusual
interest. In the Logan Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, State Historical
Museum, the H. P. Hamilton, J. P. Schumacher, and several other
collections are to be seen specimens of a rare and beautiful form of
large flint ceremonial knife, which appears not yet to have been
described from other states. These implements are somewhat elliptical in
form, with a narrow square or slightly rounded base. All are finely
chipped of selected material, and are graceful and beautiful implements.
They range from nine to thirteen and a half inches in length and from
three to three and a half inches in width across the widest portion of
their blades. Most of the specimens, whose history it has been possible
to fully trace, have accompanied burials in graves, in some instances
associated with other implements.”
Illinois and Missouri were favorite camping- and hunting-grounds of
prehistoric man (see Figs. 54, 57, 181), and chipped implements are as
numerous in Illinois as in any state in the Union. The material is
yellow chert, white flint, nodular flint; hoes and spades abound. Many
flint celts occur and the flint art is high. Illinois and eastern
Missouri and northeastern Arkansas types are characterized by light
colors, broad thin blades, etc.
Iowa and western Missouri present implements of white flint which when
seen cannot be confused with those of other sections of the country, for
the form is peculiar (see Figs. 118 and 122). On the Plains, from the
Black Hills to the Arkansas River, large rough implements abound (see
Figs. 153 and 174) on certain sites, but generally the projectile points
are small and slender. The notched objects of flint, probably used as
axes, are common in certain sections. Scrapers are to be found
everywhere in this region.
The implements of the Rocky Mountains themselves might be separated into
three or four localities. There are so few collections from the Rocky
Mountains, south of the headwaters of the Columbia and the Missouri,
that I have not sufficient data on which to base accurate observations.
This will be secured, however, at some future time. Typical Mandan
spears and arrows are shown in Fig. 138. Colorado types and those from
elsewhere in the mountains are seen in Figs. 123, 134, and 153.
It appears that many of the scrapers, knives, and projectile points of
the Great Plains were made of material brought down from the mountains.
Naturally, the natives went to the nearest quarry sites, obsidian
ledges, or where chert and agatized wood and other flakable materials
were to be found.
[Illustration:
FIG. 215. (S. 7–8.) Egyptian points from near Cairo, Egypt. Presented
for comparison. Note how unlike any American forms. Of these 22,
only 6 are similar to the United States types. Material: finely
chipped, true brown flint. Age unknown. Collection of L. V. Case,
Tarrytown, New York.
]
Central and western Texas furnish slender points of yellow chert and
scrapers of the same material. But there are also projectile points of
white and red flint quite different from those of Kansas and Nebraska.
(See Figs. 119 and 189.) Arizona and New Mexico types are chiefly of
obsidian, yet there is chalcedony and agatized wood. (See Fig. 128.)
While Arizona and New Mexico chipped objects are of the same general
character as those from the Columbia River and its tributaries, yet,
usually, they can be distinguished. (See Figs. 97, 104, 110.) But there
are obsidian points in both regions identical in character.
The Pacific Coast furnishes more large implements than are to be found
between California and Tennessee. Illustrations of California types are
in Figs. 78, 136, and 151. There are also California forms which are
rare in the Columbia Valley. Obsidian was used almost exclusively in
California.
The sugar quartz of Wisconsin, and the pink quartz of Arkansas are
almost agates. The range in texture of the stone and color of all these
implements is considerable. Although mineralogists name many of them as
of one kind of stone, yet these implements can be distinguished, because
of peculiar color or markings or texture, by the naked eye. There is
nothing visionary about such differentiation. It is real and apparent.
The people of a given village-site, or of a given territory, obtained
their material from a certain ledge or quarry or river drift, and
neighboring tribes, two or three hundred miles away, went elsewhere for
their material.
I have referred on previous pages to the long flint objects from the
Middle South. Readers will do well to compare them with the best flint
abroad or elsewhere. It was necessary for the master workman who made
these objects to secure unusually long, clear blocks of flint, in which
were no imperfections. Where the material was obtained for these
specimens (some of which are twenty to twenty-two inches in length) is a
mystery. It was a simple task for the ancient workman to block out the
implement, leaving it spade-like in character, fairly thick, and
exhibiting a surface from which flakes an inch or more in size had been
chipped. The next step required, one may imagine, the combined efforts
of two or three skillful workmen.
Possibly they made use of simple levers and heavy bone tools, as Sellars
has stated, in order to detach the flakes. Pressure wrongly directed
would result in breaking the implement. The final chipping must have
been the work of one man, and doubtless it was performed by means of a
single bone flaking-tool. We can imagine with what care the master
workman proceeded. How many of these long thin blades he broke no man
may know.
[Illustration:
FIG. 216. (S. 1–3.) Mr. H. M. Braun’s collection, East St. Louis,
Illinois. This is a highly developed chipped object, with an
exceedingly keen cutting edge. It would appear to be a special
ceremonial axe. It belongs to the class of unknown objects of
remarkable form and workmanship.
]
Formerly, it was thought that native Americans could not have produced,
in flint, the equal of the slender flint daggers found in Scandinavia.
We now know—and have the specimens to prove it—that prehistoric man in
America was at least the equal, and possibly the superior, in point of
skill of Neolithic man in Europe.
Regarding the value that Indians attached to large flint or obsidian
objects, Mr. H. N. Rust of California, for many years interested in
archæology, presents a paper in the _American Anthropologist_, vol. VII,
no. 4, p. 688, which sheds some light on the matter. I quote a few
paragraphs:—
“During a canoe voyage on the Klamath and Trinity rivers in the northern
part of California, in 1898, the author had occasion to visit many
Indian villages, and took the opportunity to make special inquiry for
obsidian spears, knives, or swords, as they are commonly called. Ten in
all were seen and five procured. They measure from seven to fifteen
inches in length and from two to four inches in width, and are
beautifully chipped to the edge from end to end. In color the obsidian
is black, red, or gray.
“In almost every instance the owners were reluctant to show these
blades. All were carefully wrapped in redwood bark and carefully hidden
away, sometimes under the floor of the lodge, oftener outside beyond the
knowledge of any one except the owner. In one instance the owner could
not be induced to get his blade until nightfall, in order that no one
should learn of its hiding-place. This habit of secreting valuable
articles for safety no doubt accounts for such objects having been found
at times in isolated places remote from dwellings or burial-places....
“These obsidian blades pass from father to son, with hereditary rank,
and are retained with pride as heirlooms; consequently it was only by
much persuasion and considerable expenditure that they could be
obtained. In several instances the Indians regarded the blades as tribal
property, and in one case I found it impossible to persuade the holder
to part with the one in his possession at any price.”
Dr. A. L. Kroeber commented in the same number of the _Anthropologist_
at considerable length on Mr. Rust’s paper. I advise readers to read
both articles, and regret that I have not space to reproduce them in
full.
It would seem to me, however, that although these Indians still venerate
the large brown and red obsidian blades, it is because their traditions
tell them that such were considered very valuable as charms, or tribal
possessions of their ancestors. It would appear that these objects are
not regarded to-day in the same light as formerly, and that the original
office or meaning is lost sight of by the modern Indians.
Dr. Kroeber concludes his paper with these words:—
“These obsidian blades of the Indians of northwestern California have
been called, and in a measure are, sacred. Nevertheless the term can be
applied to them only qualifiedly. They are primarily objects of wealth.
Their display in important ceremonies, their preciousness, and the
general disposition of these Indians to connect exhibitions of wealth
and ceremonies, give to these objects certain associations of a
religious nature. They do not, however, appear to be sacred in the same
sense in which a small class of other objects, such as certain pipes,
fire-sticks, and similar ceremonial paraphernalia, which are used in a
purely ritualistic way and whose value lies entirely in this ritualistic
and traditionary use, are sacred. Like the white deerskins and
woodpecker scalp-ornaments, the obsidian blades are not used directly in
connection with any of the sacred formulas around which the deeper
religious life of these Indians clusters. There seems also to be very
little and probably no sense of their being charms or objects with a
fetish or medicine or animistic power. They are thus sacred in a very
different sense from the objects belonging to an altar of the Pueblo
Indians, or from the objects contained in a sacred bundle of the Plains
Indians. Their general position in the ceremonies and social life of the
Indians of northwestern California resembles more nearly that of the
coppers of the Indians of the North Pacific Coast.”
[Illustration:
FIG. 217. _(S. 1–1.)_
_A red and brown obsidian blade, found on the shore of
Goose Lake, California, by the Reverend H. C. Meredith, in
1905. H. K. Deisher’s collection, Kutztown, Pennsylvania._
]
A study of chipped implements of the varieties presented in the
foregoing pages opens up a field of research of great possibilities. A
comparison of types, an examination of material—in other words, the same
technical work that classical scholars spend in research into certain
phases of Greek and Roman archæology—will lead to important results. For
instance, chips of a certain stone, which appear to have come from
Labrador, are said to be found occasionally in Maine or Massachusetts.
If this statement is true, it leads us to question whether the Eskimo
and the New England natives bartered, or whether there was a migration
in earliest times from Labrador to New England, or _vice versa_. Or,
whether the stone is found in New England as well as in Labrador.
The Ozark Mountain region, a strange country about sixty miles in
extent, where Dr. Peabody and myself found evidence of culture different
from any other existing in this country, contains two kinds of chipped
material: that found on the surface generally, and that which occurs in
the caves and caverns occupied by man. The one can be differentiated
from the other. Both might be called “flint,” or “chert,” and yet each
came from a different site and represents a different culture.
Entirely too much has been made of the fact that chipped implements of
various kinds have been seen in the possession of modern Indians the
past two hundred years. As an illustration of how the modern Indian has
drifted away from the past, and in support of my contention that his
present condition, while entertaining and interesting, is of little
value to archæology, I desire to call attention to one who is more
competent to pass upon this subject than many white persons who have
written regarding it. Dr. Charles A. Eastman, a full-blooded Sioux
Indian, himself a scholar who has given many years to a careful study of
the traditions of his own people, informs me that his grandfather
repeatedly stated that all the Sioux record-keepers were insistent in
their statements that the arrow- and spear-points found by them on the
Plains were made and used by earlier tribes, and that they always
considered them as “mystery stones” and had no tradition with regard to
their use.
I predict that the day is coming when our museums will be filled with
specimens; when most of the sites shall have been explored. Men will
then turn their attention to a detailed study of the chipped objects on
exhibition. They will make tables of these, they will measure them, they
will subdivide the materials, giving each a different name. At present
we call by the general term “chert” a dozen different colors and
textures which to the practiced eye represent different sites. The
precise meaning of all these forms and the reason for the selection of
colors or varieties, will some day, I am persuaded, become clear.