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Finding the stone point would be a treasure. Most of the American Indians adopted iron and steel quickly once introduced to metal points and knives, hatches, pots and pans. There were holdouts, though. Ishi, the stone age last Indian of his tribe (Mountains in California), found starving and sick in a California rancher's corral, was turned over to Dr. Saxton Pope's care at a hospital nearby. I think this was in the 1920's. Since Saxton Pope and Arthur Young were very much 'into' archery, they got along well with Ishi. Once he was well, their friendship grew, having that common bond, learning much from him and he from them. Ishi was totally amazed by steel "broadheads", how they were much stronger than the obsidian points he easily napped out and tied to his shafts, using deer sinew, of course. He did however, prefer his sharper obsidian points for hunting deer. Dogwood was a common shaft material of the West coast Indians and whites alike, however by the 1920's I suspect Port Orford cedar was preferred shaft material, due to it's wonderful straight splitting nature. |