Great plains northern tools

He says to always keep your eyes open, because you never know what you might find. Arrowheads are found in many sizes, shapes, materials and colors.

How the arrowhead looks depends on the culture that made it, the area, the material, and the intended use of it. Certain types of arrowheads are, however, more commonly found in some parts of the country than in others, depending on the availability of stone, the obsidian arrowhead and gem point made of agate, jasper and the mere colorful stones are far more common in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest , where these materials are more abundant.

In northern Colorado , by contrast, obsidian deposits are difficult to find. An arrowhead made of petrified wood would probably be more common in Arizona , New Mexico or Colorado , than a Great Plains state.

An arrowhead made of quartzite might be found in almost every state, because it is one of the most commonly available materials. Chert is also commonly found in many areas.

The parts of an arrowhead consist of the point, body and base. The bevel is the slope or slant of the surface or face of the edge of the arrowhead at each side. Their notch type categorizes arrowheads.

The notching of an arrowhead makes it different from other arrowheads. Arrowheads are classified into seven categories: side notched, bottom notched, corner notched, corner and bottom notched, side and bottom notched, stemmed and bottom notched, and notchless triangular or notchless stemmed.

Most tips are the same, other than the flaking pattern. The materials that arrowheads and knives are made of are very hard, the harder the stone the better the point or blade will be. The Indians did not have steel or hard metal to gouge out hard stone; many people thought that a strange process was used to make the tools.

Material for points are found in natural pebbles found along creeks or it is broken from rocky ledges of flint, novaculite , jasper, chalcedony, chert obsidian, or other hard brittle stone. A piece is held in the left hand and struck a curving blow with a hammer-stone. The hammer-stone trims off the chips on one-sided at a time, or both as the nature of the stone and its shape dictates.

Chipping the stone requires directing the blow in the right direction and using the right amount of force. The blow causes a shell —shaped chip to come off. The chipping process continues until the stone is takes its general shape. To finish the process a bone or antler-chipping tool is used to press off a small flake. It takes great skill to cut in the barbs of the edge. Pressing out a small chip, turning the blade over and pressing in on the other side, does this.

The process is kept up by alternating the direction of the chipping, from side to side, until the notch is deep enough. Many products were ruined before they were finished, because flint breaks so easily.

The stunner is a type of arrowhead. Dudney said the stunner was used to stun an animal that the hunter did not want to kill. Some tribes did not believe in killing certain animals, like an eagle. An eagle might be stunned so that feathers could be collected. But some collectors think the stunner was used hafted onto a short shaft and used as a knife, gouge, or scraper for removing marrow from bone.

A poison point arrowhead could be any arrowhead that was used to poison an animal as well as pierce its skin. Most poison points were notchless an triangular shaped so the arrowhead could detach easily and remain in the wound in case the shaft of the arrow should be jarred lose or fall.

The arrowhead would be soaked in rattlesnake venom or decayed meat. Some people speculate that another method of poisoning was to imbed an arrowhead in an animal liver and the place it on an anthill, while the liver decayed, ants would bite into it. The birdbpoint arrowhead gets its name from its small size and that it was thought to be used to hunt birds an other small prey.

At one time, all small arrowheads were called birdpoints. But a small arrowhead if properly placed can kill a large animal.

This would be true, especially if several birdpoints were shot into the animal. A scraper could be used to clean a hide, bones and other similar materials in the making of food, clothing or weapons. Any good-sized piece of flint material could be used as a scraper. A thumb scraper usually has a perfect place for the thumb to fit.

It is usually no beige than a fifty-cent coin. The knife was an essential tool used for cutting meat, hides, wood and food. It could also be a formidable weapon. The Mandan were well known to fur traders by the time Lewis and Clark arrived at their villages in The Mandan provided Lewis and Clark with important information about the Missouri River further upstream and allowed them to build a small fort for a winter camp near the villages, which the Captains named Fort Mandan in honor of their new friends.

Also a Siouan speaking group, the Hidatsa the group from which the Crow split moved westward into the Upper Missouri Region in the s, encountering the Mandan and arriving prior to the fur traders. The Mandan and Hidatsa were closely allied and during their first meeting the Mandan called them Minitari or Crossing the river.

However, their languages are different and they shared limited "Plains" culture traits. The Hidatsa also provided some information to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but were not as openly warm as the Mandan were.

Whoever, it would be in the Awahtixa village where Lewis and Clark would find Sacagawea and Charboneau. In the late s, after Fort Union was closed, a band of Hidatsa, tired of the reservation life and wars with their enemy the Lakota as well as inter-tribal politics, moved their village to the old Fort Union garden in order to be closer to Fort Buford a United States Army post.

They would return back to Fort Berthold by the late s. The Arikara are a semi-sedentary tribe like the Mandans and Hidatsas, however they are more related to the Pawnee and speak a Caddoan language. They were living along the Missouri River in modern-day South Dakota the during the s and had peaceful relationships as well as battles with the Mandan, Hidatsa, and some fur traders.

Ashley's fur trade expedition which sources say began when two trappers crept in to the villages in the middle of the night to find female companionship after a couple of days of trading. After the battle with the United States Army 6th infantry, the Arikara temporarily adopted the nomadic Plains lifestyle. Eventually they returned to their sedentary lifestyle and by the s were again living in villages along the Missouri.

Following the smallpox epidemic, which was particularly devastating to the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, the Arikara allied themselves with the Mandan and Hidatsa in and moved in with their former neighbors for equal protection from the Lakota.

Today, these three tribes are known as the Three Affiliated Tribes. The Sioux are made up of three large tribes that share a common language with only slight dialect differences and culture. The three divisions are the Dakota, the Nakota, and the Lakota named here for their dialects. The Eastern Dakota lived mainly in Minnesota though some bands would venture further west onto the Plains following the Minnesota Uprising War.

The Lakota, or Western Sioux also known as the Teton Sioux , were the largest Sioux tribal group, made up of seven bands. The Lakota inhabited a vast area from the Missouri River west to the Bighorn Mountains and from the Platte River north into the extreme southern parts of the Canadian Plains.

The Lakota did not make an appearance at Fort Union until the s and did not start showing up in large numbers until the late s. Health departments can consult this document for guidance on conducting climate and health vulnerability assessments. Estimate the health impacts and economic value of changes in air quality with this downloadable software. Training resources can help new users document the potential benefits of community efforts to improve air quality.

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