Photo: Long lost tool of indirect percussion recorded by Ray, during the late 1880's

[BenjaminE]

For those who are interested in authentic New World flintknapping technologies, the tool recorded by soldier P.H. Ray, when he was stationed among the Hupa of northern California, was finally recovered, and posted online by a national museum.

This tool was shown in the Columbia Exposition, during the 1890's, along with the rest of the flintknapper's toolkit.






Ray writes:

1885 - "The methods of the northern Californian bowyer and fletcher are now pretty clearly understood. For ordinary flaking of jasper or obsidian he uses a common pebble hammerstone, but for detaching flakes of the best quality he uses between his hammer and his core a "PITCHING TOOL" or sort of "COLD-CHISEL" of the hardest antler." ("Ray Collection From Hupa Reservation", P.H. Ray)

Fig. 5 - The Pitching Tool - A COLUMN OF ANTLER used like a COLD CHISEL in knocking off SPALLS or FLAKES or BLADES by means of some kind of hammer.

The ubiquitous presence of tools of indirect percussion was further confirmed by Professor Otis Tufton Mason, during the 1890's, when he wrote:

"Lieut. Kay was the first to actually send to the National Museum a bit of antler, 6 inches long and about three quarters of an inch in diameter, to be used like a stonecutter's punch or "pitching tool" or a smith's punch in knocking off chips in the process of arrow-making. But there are constant references to this intermediary tool. The writer, who has experimented in most aborginal stone-working methods, has not attempted to use this apparatus in order to know its limits." ("North American Bows, Arrows, and Quivers, Otis Tuft Mason)

 

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[BenjaminE]

Similarly, another native from northern California, who was born in 1863, and who lived to a great age, even into his eighties, was still using the following toolkit, at the beginning of the 20th century:









This person's name was Theodore Orcutt. And, he was far older than Ishi.

 

[BenjaminE]

Here are the notes which show how Orcutt was using the tools, as well as the original accession record, from when Grace Nicholson documented his work, took photos, and had it all sent to the US National Museum, in 1919.







Between 2010 and 2011, I communicated with possibly hundreds of people who mostly thought that Orcutt had been knapping with wooden batons. Yet, the cultural context pointed to indirect percussion, a form that had never been seen.

After six months of searching through records, I stumbled upon the record of 16 antler chisels that had been gifted to the US National Museum. Knowing that the museum had burned, and knowing that a great deal of the contents ended up in the Smithsonian, I checked with the Smithsonian. Three months later, they wrote back and told me that they had finally tracked down the tools in a box that no one had even seen since the 1980's. And, I knew that these tools would be found.

I have a friend who studied Theodore Orcutt for possibly decades. Imagine his amazement in finding out that these were the tools, and even the notes of the tool process, used by Orcutt! And, the reason that we have all of this is because one woman, named Graced Nicholson, cared enough about the truth to document Orcutt's work. And, in the following correspondence, Holmes writes back and said says that surely Orcutt was carrying on the traditions of his fathers.

And, through translator Sam Batawi, Ishi told the following:

1919 - ""But if a large spearpoint or knife-blade is ultimately desired, an intermediate tool is needed. This is apparently (Ishi never made one for me to see) a short, stout, blunt-pointed piece of bone or wood serving as a sort of punch and sometimes as a lever. As a matter of fact, what is wanted in the case of producing a large implement is not the division of the obsidian mass but the trimming down of this mass by the detachment from it of all unnecessary portions." (Handbook of aboriginal American antiquities, W.H. Holmes

So, what was heard from Ishi, we see in Orcutt.