“... Flint tipped arrows ... were made of cane or rose and had foreshafts of Serviceberry, or they might be entirely of Service wood. Cane arrows ... with a sharp-pointed foreshaft of Serviceberry were commonly used for small animals and birds. Such arrows might be unfeathered ... (an informant) recalled a bird arrow ... with a barbed wooden point. Deer-bone pointed arrows were sometimes used for killing deer and other game. Voegelin reports that these arrows were also sometimes barbed. Flint-tipped arrows were about thirty inches long ... arrows for small game were somewhat shorter than flint-tipped arrows ... the wood was ordinarily dried before it was used. The end of the Serviceberry foreshaft was cut into a dowel which was inserted in the soft pithy center of the main shaft, the juncture being wrapped with sinew. A notch one-fourth of an inch deep was cut in the butt. A laterally notched obsidian arrow point was inserted in the split end of the foreshaft and bound on with cross lashings of sinew. The binding was ordinarily waterproofed with pitch.
“Two small grooved pumice stones were used to smooth arrow shafts. The foreshaft was painted red as an indication that poison had been applied to the point. Other bands or stripes of color toward the nock end of the arrow served as ownership marks ... the stripes might run spirally as on a stick of candy ... all kinds of colors being used for painting arrows. Feathers were split along the midrib and were glued to the shaft, about a finger’s width below the butt, with pitch. Sinew wrapping bound down each end of the feathers, three of which—about four inches long—were used to an arrow. The edge of the feather was burned smooth with a hot coal. Feathers of hawks or similar birds were used on ordinary arrows, but for the finest arrows—those to be used for bear and deer—eagle feathers were employed. An arrow wrench of bone or wood was used for straightening arrows; or they might simply be straightened by using the teeth as a vise. A flat antelope horn might be perforated and used as an arrow wrench.... (John La Mar) had a small triangular stone with a hole in the center ... which, he said was heated in the fire and used for straightening cane arrows.
Maidu bow 40 inches long and two inches wide, deer sinew backed and painted with powdered greenish rock from Oregon mixed with Salmon glue. Two arrows are obsidian tipped. (after Dixon)
“Although the flint points themselves were considered poisonous, an arrow poison was often used for larger game as well as in war. The usual method of making poison was to take the liver or pancreas of a deer and allow it to rot; the material was then smeared on the arrow point....”
Rattlesnake poison was also employed; however none of the poisoned arrow concoctions were very effective except to start infection of wounds inflicted by arrow points so treated.
Painted Atsugewi bows (after Garth)
a. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge) b. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge) c. Drawn by Dave Brown (Atsuge) with outer lines red, inner lines green
Arrow points found in the park area, in the territory of both Atsugewi and mountain Maidu are most frequently of obsidian, but sometimes are of a dense dull black basalt lava. The term flint is a very loose one, being applied to obsidian, chert, opal, chalcedony, and even to the dense basalt, noted above, in common usage.
Mountain Maidu imported yew wood as this did not commonly grow in their own territory. This tribe, however, also manufactured its own bows. In practically all respects bow and arrow design and execution were identical to that of the Atsugewi. Those of Yana and Yahi were similar too. All tribes of the Lassen area fashioned arrow points with barbs. In addition mountain Maidu flaked points without barbs but with basal stems for attachment were made.