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Miwok Material Culture: Indian Life of the Yosemite Region (1933) by S. A. Barrett and E. W. Gifford

ARROW STRAIGHTENERS AND SMOOTHERS

Two well-known types of arrow straighteners were employed, a perforated one of wood (plate LX, fig. 4) or stone and one of grooved stone. Both were called lipippa (C). The perforated type was of manzanita, maple, or stone (Field Museum 70156, Central Miwok). It had a circular hole, not perfectly straight, but with a slight angle at the middle, through which the arrow was thrust and bent after having been warmed over a fire. The stone arrow straightener was of steatite, about the size of one’s fist. The transverse groove in it had a slight bend, thus giving an angle against which to, bend the arrow. One aged informant possessed one which she had found some years before at Lowönunu (Long Gulch, Tuolumne county), an old camp site.

The Field Museum of Natural History possesses a third type of implement, composed of two opposing, longitudinally grooved sections of pumice (70157, 1-2), described as an arrow shaft plane. This tool is from the Central Miwok.

[click to enlarge]

EXPLANATION OF PLATE LX.

Figure 1. Dip or swab for manzanita cider. Spec. No. 1-10247 (S).

Figures 2, 3. Human hair quail snares. Spec. No. 1-10136 (C).

Figure 4. Model of a wooden arrow straightener. Spec. No. 1-11564 (C). Length, 160 mm.

Figure 5. Whetstone for sharpening bone awls. Spec. No. 1-24335 (C).

Figure 6. Steatite arrow straightener. Spec. No. 1-24336 (C).

Neg. No. 8274.

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