Native American tools

Tribes affected: Pantribal

Significance: The many tools that were manufactured by American Indians enabled them to hunt, fish, farm, make clothing, build their homes, and protect themselves from both wild animals and hostile strangers

Before European traders and settlers emigrated to North America, American Indians were limited in the materials available to them for the preparation of their tools. Inland Indian tribes utilized stone, wood, and animal bone almost exclusively. Indians living near the oceans also used seashells. In most tribes each Native American man or Native American woman made his or her own tools, and considerable time was spent in searching for the right piece of a useful mineral or for a type of wooden branch to make into the desired tool. Effort was spent in the conceptualization of how to prepare a desired tool most appropriately from the few materials available and how to make it most attractive. Tool preparation was arduous in most cases, and the tools that Indians used—axes, arrowheads, arrows, bows, clubs, hammers, harpoons, knives, farm and home implements, nets, scrapers, spear heads, tomahawks, traps, and so on—combined ingenuity and aesthetic sensibility.

Hammers, Axes, and Adzes

Preparation of these tools first required the choice of an appropriate stone. Hammers, very common Indian tools, were prepared in several stages. First the chosen stone was chipped roughly with another stone and a bone chisel to produce the general shape of the desired hammer. Then more careful chipping yielded a more exact hammer shape. Finally, grinding with wet sand or sandstone completed the process. The stone most often chosen for hammers was granite, because the repeated pounding that is involved in hammering does not easily split or shatter this exceptionally tough stone.

Good stone axes were rare because minerals that could yield a sharp enough point to shape logs were scarce. Even the best axes Indians could make (prior to their contact with Europeans, who provided metal tools) were poor shaping tools. Only in the American Northwest did Indians do extensive woodworking. There, available minerals such as serpentine could be used to make adzes (cutting tools with thin, arched blades).

Clubs and Tomahawks

Two other very common Indian tools were clubs and tomahawks, although these artifacts were most commonly used as Native American weapons in warfare. Clubs were often made by shaping a heavy piece of wood with a knot at one end. The eastern Indian tribes, especially the Algonquian groups, are credited with the invention of the tomahawk. The first tomahawks were clubs with a pointed stone inset into the knot in the club. Tomahawks were heavier, sharper, and deadlier than were clubs and spread slowly through the Indian tribes. They reached the height of deadliness and wide use only after European traders introduced the axlike metal tomahawks that many tribes came to favor.

Arrowheads, Harpoons, Knives, Scrapers, and Spearheads

These ubiquitous Indian implements were very often made of flint, chert, or black obsidian (volcanic glass), all stones that can be chipped to produce very sharp cutting edges. In order to make them (an arrowhead, or Native American projectile point, for example), the Indian artisan positioned a bone chisel against a chosen place at the edge of the stone to be used. Then the chisel was struck repeatedly with a hammer, until a stone chip was knocked off by the percussion. After chipping away at the entire edge of the chosen stone, a sharp, serrated edge was produced. Then, carrying out the same overall procedure on the other edge of the stone produced a typical arrowhead. Longer stones of various sizes, edged on one side only, became knives or scrapers. The blades of harpoons and spears were made in a similar fashion, but they were much larger.

In a great many instances, these implements were attached to short handles (such as knife hafts) or long handles (spear or arrow shafts). Stone implements were thus necessarily engineered so that the haft or the shaft could be attached by the use of rawhide or sinew straps. Harpoons were designed so that a long rope was firmly attached to the harpoon head. This was necessary for efficient recovery of the fish or other aquatic creatures hunted with these tools.

Bow and Arrow Design

The bow-and-arrow combination derived from efforts of Native Americans to cast spears for longer distances than was possible when they were simply thrown by hand. The wooden or reed shafts of arrows were chosen for straightness, strength, and lightness. The arrow’s back end was notched to fit a bow string and fletched with two or three bird feather pieces. Fletching facilitated straight flight upon release from a bow. Arrows were considered to be quite valuable and were very time-consuming to make, so most Indians marked them so that they could be easily identified and reclaimed for reuse.

Bows were made of strong, springy wood (such as hickory, oak, or ash) that was reinforced for even greater strength by use of added bone and sinew. These tools of the hunt and of war varied according to whether the Indian using them traveled on foot or on horseback. Those who rode on horses used short, curved bows. Such bows were often double-curved compound bows of the shape sometimes called a Cupid’s bow. Made mostly of wood or animal horn, they were strengthened in the middle by pieces of bone or sinew. Indians who traveled on foot often used very simple wooden bows usually as long as the bow wielder was tall; they were much less curved than the bows of horsemen. The bow strings utilized by various American Indians varied from twisted plant fiber cords to animal sinew, depending on the tensile strength that was required by the user.

Farm and Home Implements

The axes, hammers, knives, and scrapers previously described were everyday tools that were used both in the home and in the fields. In addition to stone tools, many bone implements were utilized because of their hardness, the plentiful occurrence of bone in game animals eaten, the varied shapes and sizes of animal bones, and the fact that bones could be broken into very sharp fragments when struck with hammers or even with unworked stones. Sharp bone slivers could be used as awls that drilled holes in skins to make into footwear and other clothing or as chisels utilized in toolmaking. The shoulder blades of large animals were also made into hoes by some tribes that farmed. Deer antlers were used as picks for the digging of the ores and gemstones (copper and turquoise, for example) used to make jewelry. Bone, stone, or wood hooks used to catch fish were also made by many Native American tribes.

Sinew, Tools, Nets, and Traps

Animal sinews were highly valued items widely used in Indian toolmaking. Their use was based on their strength and on the fact that a wet sinew shrinks when it dries. It has already been mentioned that sinew was used for bowstrings wherever possible. In addition, sinew lashings were the preferred way to affix bladed tools to their handles. Where sinew was used, it was first wet thoroughly. Then it was used to tie the stone part of the tool to its handle tightly and allowed to dry. The shrunken, dried lashings held the parts of the tool together firmly and became quite hard.

Nets and other types of animal traps were also widely utilized by American Indians when they went hunting and fishing. Nets were made of the fibrous inner bark of trees, of grasses woven into cordage, or of combinations of these materials and strips of animal hide or sinews. They were used to catch fish or smaller land animals. Sometimes they were also incorporated into traps into which aquatic animals or land animals were driven by large groups of Indians. Other Native American traps for catching solitary, large game included wooden pens, spring traps, and deadfall traps. These last two types of traps caught animals by dropping heavy weights on them or by catching them by a foot after they were attracted by bait. It is now believed that many Indian tribes obtained more food animals with nets and traps than with archery, spear casting, and hook fishing.

Simple Wooden Tools

Many tools used by Indians were made of wood only. For example, many arrows used to hunt birds and other small game were merely sharpened sticks. Such arrows were more expendable, and stone points were not necessary to kill such animals. Planting sticks used by Indians who farmed were usually long branches, forked near the bottom. One fork end was sharpened to be used in the actual planting; the other end was a foot rest. In addition, many hoes and clubs were made of wood only.

Bibliography

Adair, James. Adair’s History of the American Indians. Edited by Samuel Cole Williams. 1930. Reprint. New York: Promontory Press, 1974. This book, first published in 1775 and edited by Williams, describes the lifestyle of many American Indians, therein illustrating the preparation and the use of many Indian tools.

Hothem, Lar. Arrowheads and Projectile Points. Paducah, Ky.: Collector Books, 1983. This well-illustrated book describes arrowheads and other projectile points, their preparation by various Indian tribes, the materials and techniques used, and ways to identify fakes of various types. It is interesting and contains very good illustrations.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Indian Flints of Ohio. Lancaster, Ohio: Hothem House Books, 1986. Illustrates Indian tools and their provenance from 8000 b.c.e. to 1650 c.e. Engenders an understanding of the evolution of Indian toolmaking and of how the tools were mated with components that completed them.

Montgomery, David R. Indian Crafts and Skills: An Illustrated Guide for Making Authentic Indian Clothing, Shelters, and Ornaments. Bountiful, Utah: Horizon, 1985. Most interesting here are the illustrated descriptions of the preparation of common Indian tools and of several types of traps. Tools and traps are related to other aspects of Indian life.

Russell, Virgil Y. Indian Artifacts. Boulder, Colo.: Johnson, 1981. Describes and illustrates most types of Indian tools and other artifacts. Explains how many of the Indian artifacts were fabricated.