IX. ARROW POINTS, INDIAN RELICS, ETC.           

 

There are may traces of the Indian race that once inhabited this county still remaining, and many objects of curious workmanship once belonging to them are still picked up, although of late years the numbers have grown perceptibly “smaller by degrees and beautifully less.” Several residents of the county have collections of calumets, stone axes, bows and arrows; stone arrow points of every conceivable shape and make; wampum, wampum belts, stones on which hieroglyphics of various kinds are drawn; stone tablets, scrapers, fish line sinkers, totems, and other Indian trinkets too numerous to

 

HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.                                     49

 

mention. Some of these archeological specimens are very curious and afford an ample theme for the delectation of minds directed in that channel. There is in the collection of the public schools of Plymouth a totem found near Fort Wayne which probably belonged to the Pottawattomie or the Miami tribe of Indians. It is worked out of a solid blue and white stone. Its head is the shape of a dog's head, and it’s back like that of a shell turtle. Underneath holes are drilled for the purpose of securing it to the "big Indian" wearing it. The Indians believed every animal to have had a great original, or father. The first buffalo, the first bear, the first beaver, the first eagle, and so on, was the manatau of the whole race of the different creatures. They chose some one-of these originals as their special manatau, or guardian, and hence arose the custom of having the figure of some animal for the arms or symbols of a tribe, called a totem. Hence the buffalo, the bear and the beaver tribes each had their totems, which were represented by rude figures of these animals. When they signed treaties with the white men, they sometimes sketched outlines of their totems. Wampum, which was in universal use among the different tribes of Indians prior to the settlement of the whites among them, is yet in use as money among some of the western tribes. It is made of various materials, that most common being the clear parts of the common clamshell. This part being split off, a hole is drilled in it, and the form is produced by friction. They are about half an inch long, and valued, when they become a circulating medium, at about 2 cents for three of the black beads, or 6 of the white. They were strung in parcels to represent a penny, three pence, a shilling, and 5 shillings of white, and double that amount in black. A fathom of white was worth about $2.50, and black about $5.

The most common souvenirs of the Indian race, or more properly the Mound Builders, that once inhabited this region, are the flint arrow points. They are of every conceivable size and quality of stone, and many of them are artistically and elegantly made. Arrowheads are picked up in this vicinity in considerable numbers, but how

 

The ancient arrow maker

Made his arrowheads of sandstone,

Arrowheads of chalcedony,

Arrowheads of flint and jasper,

Smooth and sharpened at the edges,

Hard and polished, keen and costly,

 

is as much a mystery as it was when our ancestors discovered America. Mr. Aaron Greenwalt, of Plymouth, is something of an archeologist, and has some five or six hundred stone arrow points and other Mound Builder and Indian trinkets. He has for a long time been studying and experimenting for the- purpose of discovering the modus operandi of making stone implements, and has succeeded in making from flint stone in the rough, several fine specimens of arrow points; stone awls and the like. From the many researches made by antiquarians in the Stone Age it has been definitely ascertained that these implements were made by a process unknown to the present generation. There were no iron or other metal tools in that age by which stone implements could be carved out, and the art of making them has been the study of thousands, time out of mind. These stone implements were undoubtedly made by a race of people known to us as the Mound Builders,

 

50                            HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY

 

Who inhabited this country long prior to its occupancy by the Indian race found here when America was discovered by Columbus. Of what race of people the Mound Builders were, whence they came, and whither they went, is as much of a mystery now as it was in the beginning of the many investigations that have been made down to the present time. In and about all the mounds that have been opened and explored, more or less of these implements mounds that have been opened and explored more of these implements have been found. The Indians found them when they came on to this continent, and made use of many of them for such purposes as suited their fancy – four use in battle, in securing game for food, for ornament, etc. But how they were originally made has been considered one of the “lost arts,” Mr. Greenwalt thinks, however, he has solved the problem; at least the manner in which he worked out the specimens referred to is as near a satisfactory solution as any that has yet been reported. He uses a piece of leather sufficiently large to cover the inside of the left hand, in which a hole is made large enough to insert the thumb. He then lays a piece of obsidian, or flint stone in the rough, out of which the arrow point is to be worked. He then takes a piece of wire (he thinks a sharpened deer’s horn was used by those who made the arrow points) about the size of a small lead pencil, the end of which is sharpened. Holding the piece of stone firmly in the hand, between the thumb and forefinger, he commences chipping of the stone by pressing downward. He turns the stone over and reverses it as the work progresses until it is completed. This is all there is of it. Whether this was the original manner of working out these arrow points or not of course cannot be definitely determined, but it is novel, to say the least, and is worthy the attention of those whose aesthetic taste runs in that direction. Several residents of Marshall County have during the past few years made considerable headway in collecting relics of the Indian race in this locality, and as the years go by these collections will become more and more interesting as marking the starting point in our civilization three-quarters of a century ago.