lithic implements of the nimiipuu

Running head: LITHIC IMPLEMENTS OF THE NIMIIPUU 1

Lithic Implements of the Nimiipuu

Joshua L. Rogers

Lewis-Clark State College

6 May 2013

LITHIC IMPLEMENTS OF THE NIMIIPUU 2

Abstract

The purpose of this research paper is to analyze the lithic implements created

and used by the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) people. Specifically, to explore the varied

types of stone implements, their uses, durability, and how these tools played a

role in agriculture, hunting, fishing and trade. Describe how such implements

were crafted, traded for and evolved over time and what impact the eruption of

Mount Mazama may have had on diet, as evidenced by tools. Determine some

of the impacts of the arrival of metal tools through European trade. Examine

what these things tell us about the Nimiipuu people.


Lithic Implements of the Nimiipuu

Prior to the arrival of European trade goods most Pre-Colonial North

American cultures never developed the technologies required to fashion metal

tools. These cultures either did not obtain metal tools or, after the arrival of

European colonists, the tools were acquired through trade. As a result of this,

people living in North America relied solely on lithic tools crafted from stones

gathered within their territory or obtained from trading partners. Such cultures

are known as stone tool dependent cultures.

The Nimiipuu of the Pacific Northwest are one such stone tool dependent

culture. While they certainly used other materials, like wood, bark, roots,

reeds, sagebrush and grasses to do their work, stone tools formed the

foundation of many aspects of daily life. Some of the activities facilitated by

stone tools included the harvesting of plants and animals along with the

creation of other tools, the processing of hides and in the preparation of dyes,

paints, foods and medicines.

Archeological excavations of historic sites utilized by the Nimiipuu and

their ancestors in Idaho, Oregon and Washington have uncovered a variety of

stone tools including, but not limited to, scrapers, awls, drills, weights,

spearheads, arrowheads, axes, mallets, hammers, war hammers, knives, stone

pipes, mortars, pestles, manos, metates, and wedges. To date, the oldest

artifacts recovered show that humans have been living in the Pacific Northwest

and making stone tools ever since their arrival sometime around 12,000 years

ago (Keyser, 1992, p. 24; “Nez Perce museum collections: Legend times,” n.d.).


This migration was likely facilitated by warming temperatures and retreating

glaciers, with the first evidence for aspects of the Nimiipuu culture becoming

evident around 6,000 years ago (Keyser, 1992, p. 24).

It is interesting to note that between 8,000 to 6,500 years ago there were

several dramatic changes in the use and style of stone tools including a notable

proliferation in tools associated with the gathering and processing of plants

(Keeler, 1973, pp. 76-77; Keyser, 1992, p. 25). The most significant change in

stone tools is in the evolution of projectile points (Fig. 1) from bulky, rounded

leaf shapes to thin and angular in form with barbs and side, corner and or

basal notches (Butler, 1961, pp. 18-21; Keyser, 1992, p. 25). There is debate as

to whether this was due to increasing cultural exchange due to the warming

climate of the Holocene Climate Optimum, around 7,000 – 3,000 BCE, or due

to the natural evolution and improvement of lithic technology within the

Plateau cultures (Keeler, 1973, pp. 77-78).

Fig. 1. Evolution of Projectile Points: Columbia Plateau Photos adapted from http://imnh.isu.edu/digitalatlas/arch/Prehist/C-Hist/C-Hist.htm * Timeline shows approximate time period of a particular style’s prevalence in the entire Pacific Northwest. Some areas show thousands of years of overlapping use between styles while other areas show older styles rapidly discarded in favor of the new.

12000 BCE 4800 BCE 8000 BCE

4500 BCE 1000 CE

1900 CE 6000 BCE

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Basal Notch Side Notch Edge Notch/Barb Stem


Impact of Mazama Eruption on Tools and Diet

The previously noted upsurge in plant processing tools such as mortars,

pestles, manos and metates and the corresponding increase in reliance on

plants as a food source may be linked to the catastrophic eruption of Mount

Mazama between September and November, sometime around 5700 BCE; the

explosive force of which was of such magnitude that it formed present day

Crater Lake in south eastern Oregon (Keyser, 1992, p. 26; Oetelaar &

Beaudoin, 2005, p. 291). Significant volumes of ash were deposited (Figs. 2 &

3), ranging from 300 feet deep near the caldera and up to a foot in Idaho and

Washington (Klimasauskas, Bacon & Alexander, 2002). The eruption and

subsequent ash fall devastated the Pacific Northwest. Areas as far south as

California and Nevada and as far north as Alberta, Canada were covered in

several inches of ash.

Fig. 2. Mazama Ash 5,700 BCE The Smithsonian Institute. (n.d.), [Diagram]. Retrieved 25 April, 2013, from National Museum of Natural History: The Dynamic Earth http://www.mnh.si.edu/earth/text/images/4_0_0_0/4415_mazama-1.jpg

Fig. 3. Comparative Tephra Volumes * Based on USGS estimates. ** Tephra includes all solid material ejected during an eruption (ash, lapilli, blocks and bombs).

116

20

1 0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Mt. Mazama, Oregon (5700 BCE)

Krakatoa, Indonesia (1883 CE)

Mt. St Helens, Washington (1980 CE)

Tephra Errupted (km^3)


Many deposits of Mazama ash are still visible just beneath the topsoil in

various locations around the Pacific Northwest, providing archeologists and

geologists with a well-defined and widespread chronographic marker.

Unfortunately, few studies have been written about the impact of the

Mazama eruption on the regional ecology, much less the cultures of the Pacific

Northwest. Such a lack of research, besides a noted shift toward plant

harvesting and fishing around the same time as the eruption, makes it difficult

to do anything more than hypothesize about the effects of Mazama based on

the observations of similar, modern eruptions.

To further impress the significance and scale, in 1980, Mount Saint

Helens released a total of 24 Mt of energy; in 1883, Krakatoa released 200 Mt;

and in 5700 BCE, Mount Mazama released 10,000 Mt of energy, roughly

equivalent to the detonation of 100,000 (one hundred-thousand) 100 kt

nuclear bombs over the span of several days (Tupper, 2003, p. 2)!

Contemporary observations of volcanic eruptions such as Mount Saint

Helens, Washington in 1980 and Krakatoa, Indonesia in 1883, being similar

types of volcanoes with explosive eruptions similar to Mazama, provide good

baselines from which to extrapolate what the Nimiipuu and others in the region

would likely have experienced in 5700 BCE.

The immediate impact on the Nimiipuu would have come from the ash

falling within their homeland; up to a foot deep as far north as present day

Lewiston, Idaho. The sky would have been completely obscured by thick, black

clouds of ash, which had been blasted into the atmosphere to an estimated


height of thirty miles, plunging the Pacific Northwest into total darkness for up

to a month (Klimasauskas et al., 2002; Oetelaar & Beaudoin, 2005, p. 291;

Tupper, 2003, p. 4). Because volcanic ash is highly reflective, the fall and

winter temperatures below the ash cloud would have been bitterly cold as the

thick clouds blocked most solar radiation (Oetelaar & Beaudoin, 2005, p. 293).

After several days, as the ash from Mazama settled over the landscape, it

would have seemed, if it had been possible to see in the pitch black, that a

knee-deep, powdery, grayish snow had fallen from horizon to horizon. After the

ash had finally settled, the whitish surface it created would have acted like a

mirror, reflecting sunlight and thus, since little heat was absorbed into the

ground, nightly temperatures would have been colder than usual (Oetelaar &

Beaudoin, 2005, p. 293).

Based on the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, the global climate may have

experienced significant cooling and higher levels of precipitation after the

Mazama eruption (Oetelaar & Beaudoin, 2005, p. 293; "Volcanic winter," 2013).

While Krakatoa ejected about 20 cubic kilometers of tephra into the

atmosphere, lowering the average global temperature by around 5 degrees for a

period of 4 years, Mazama ejected significantly more, around 116 cubic

kilometers, and would have had a much greater impact on the global climate

(“1983 eruption of Krakatau”, 2004; “Mazama Ash,” 2007; “Volcanic winter,”

2013).

Besides the ash accumulation, acid rain would have been a short term

problem as sulfur dioxide from the eruption mixed with moisture in the


atmosphere and rained down as droplets of sulfuric acid, killing much of the

vegetation that was not already smothered by the ash (Tupper, 2003, p. 6).

As a combination of ash and acid rain killed off most plants, the

resulting lack of vegetation for grazing, along with ash inhalation, would have

led to the starvation and or migration of most large game animals, which up to

this point had been the primary food source of the Nimiipuu and the other

peoples of the Pacific Northwest (Keeler, 1973, pp. 77-78; Keyser, 1992, p. 26;

Tupper, 2003, p. 6).

It is likely that the only remaining significant source of food for the

Nimiipuu in the spring and summer months following the Mazama eruption

were fish from the rivers and what plants that managed to push up through

the compacted ash (Oetelaar & Beaudoin, 2005, p. 298). Similarly, any plant

life that survived the ash and acid rain would have thrived in the coming

decade on the mineral nutrients added to the soil by the ash. Interestingly, this

same time period presents the first evidence that camas was used as a food

source (Keyser, 1992, p. 26). These two factors are likely reasons for the

increase in artifacts associated with plant processing and fishing, along with

the corresponding decrease in artifacts related to hunting game animals from

sites excavated in the stratigraphic layers following the Mazama eruption.

The devastating effect Mazama had on the human population are seen in

how previously populated portions of Oregon appear to have been abandoned,

or saw only sparse use by passing individuals, for up to 4000 years after the

disaster (Greene, 1998, p. 86).


Advantages of Stone Tools

The majority of stone tools excavated from sites within the bounds of the

traditional Nimiipuu homeland show signs of significant reuse before being

either lost or discarded (Sappington & Carley, 1987, p. 56). This evidence

demonstrates several advantages and disadvantages of stone tools versus metal

tools.

The first advantage that stone tools hold over metal tools is that as a

stone tool is worn down or becomes broken it can be quickly repaired using the

same method as was used to craft it, or it can be flaked apart and the

fragments used to make other smaller tools.

The second advantage is that while most metal tools require significant

training and infrastructure to craft, most stone tools can be crafted quickly,

with relative ease and from materials found near at hand. However, it should

not be overlooked that many stone tools have been found which exhibit a

quality of craftsmanship that only skilled hands and long hours practice could

have produced.

Ultimately, a stone tool can be used for many years in various forms. For

example, a broken axe, hammer or club could be made into several knives,

then in turn, as these knives wear out or break, they could be repurposed into

scrapers, and these scrapers into arrows and so on, with each repurposing the

tools get smaller until being discarded once no longer useful.


Similarities between Plateau Cultures

It is interesting to note that while the individual tribes of the Columbian

Plateau are certainly culturally diverse, they share more in common with each

other than they do with the tribes of the surrounding regions (Keyser, 1992, p.

28). In particular, the stone tools made by the people of the Columbian Plateau

share many similarities in manufacture and purpose (Keyser, 1992, p. 28).

However, in light of similar languages, long distance trade networks and

high volume trading hubs, such as those shared by the Nimiipuu at the Dalles

and Kettle Falls, these similarities are without a doubt the result of over 6

millennia of exchanging goods and knowledge at these sites and over regional

trade routes (Keyser, 1992, p. 25; Peers, 1996, p. 1). In fact, the Nimiipuu were

such successful traders that, by the time the Corps of Discovery met them in

1805, the Nimiipuu language was the dominant trade language in the Plateau

region.

How Stone Tools were Made

The methods used by the Nimiipuu to craft stone tools were the same as

in many other Mesolithic cultures throughout the Americas and around the

world. Examination of archeological sites and the associated lithic artifacts

show that the Nimiipuu utilized both pressure and percussion flaking in the

manufacture of stone tools (Butler, 1961, p. 38; Sappington & Carley, 1987, p.

79).

Pressure flaking is the use of another stone or a piece of bone or antler to

apply pressure to the edge of a flake, a fragment taken from a core, in such a


way that conchoidal fracture occurs, causing a small fragment of the flake to

pop off (Fig. 4). Repeating this process many times using different pressures

and angles a flake is shaped into the desired tool.

Percussion flaking is the use of a heavy blunt tool, most likely another

stone or a large bone, to batter a stone into the desired shape (Fig. 5).

Percussion flaking is less accurate and would typically be used to craft heavier

tools such as axes, clubs or some of the larger scrapers.

Recovered cores, pre-forms and tools show evidence that the Nimiipuu

also knew how to make tools less likely to break and easier to craft by first heat

treating siliceous stones such as chert, quartzite or obsidian in fires or hot

coals (Keeler, 1973, p. 61; Sappington & Carley, 1987, p. 59). Heat treatment

works by baking out any water in the stones and allowing the remaining silicon

and oxygen to bond thereby changing the chemistry of a silica rich stone and in

doing so, making it easier to fracture and capable of holding a sharper edge

(Cowan, 1987, pp. 2-3).

Fig. 4. Pressure Flaking Anderson, T. (n.d.), [Diagram]. Retrieved 22 April, 2013, from The Flintknapper.com http://theflintknapper.com/files/pres2.jpg

Fig. 5. Percussion Flaking Anderson, T. (n.d.), [Diagram]. Retrieved 22 April, 2013, from The Flintknapper.com http://theflintknapper.com/files/perc3.jpg


Stone tools would often be made by the person who intended to use

them. Traditionally men would manufacture hunting equipment like projectile

points and knives while women would manufacture processing equipment like

scrapers, grinders, mortars, pestles, manos and metates (Sappington & Carley,

1987, p. 70).

Due to the difficulty of transporting heavy stones and large tools when on

foot, many weighty tools, such as granite hammers or grinding stones, were

crafted from local materials, river cobbles for instance, used and then

discarded or cached, while lighter tools such as knives and projectile points

could be carried by an individual in a parfleche bag, or some other pouch

(Keeler, 1973, p. 49).

Materials Used to Craft Stone Tools

The Nimiipuu have used many types of stones when crafting their tools.

It is unsurprising, due to the abundance of basalt found in the Columbia

Plateau that the vast majority of early, pre 8,000 BCE, stone tools, recovered

from excavations within the traditional Nimiipuu homeland are made of basalt

(Butler, 1961, p. 38). Sometime after 6,000 BCE, as trade and population

increased in the Plateau region, other materials became dominant (Nelson,

1966, p. 7).

The use of local material played a factor in early tool making but there is

evidence of trade for raw materials. For example, at some sites nearly 70% of

debtage, the waste material from lithic manufacture, is composed of quartzite


and other cryptocrystalline stones such as chert and obsidian (Miss, Campbell,

Livingston, Sammons-Lohse, & Steinholm, 1984, pp. 55-56).

Trade and Mineral Localities

It should be noted that materials such as chert and obsidian, while

present, are fairly scarce in the Columbia Plateau region, appearing almost

exclusively as stray river cobbles, and were more likely to have been traded for

through extended trade networks with tribes as far north as Alaska and British

Columbia, and from Mexico in the south to as far east as the Mandan living

near the Mississippi River (Keyser, 1992, pp. 31-32; “Nez Perce museum

collections: Transport and trade,” n.d.; Peers, 1996, p. 1).

Analysis of tools excavated near The Dalles shows that the most probable

source of obsidian is south-central Oregon as well as the region of Oregon near

Wallowa (Keyser, 1992, pp. 27; “Obsidian”, n.d.). Chert, of which no significant

sources exist west of the Rocky Mountains, was most likely traded for from

tribes living on the Great Plains (“Chert”, n.d.; Keyser, 1992, pp. 31-32). Other

materials which the Nimiipuu utilized include basalt, quartz crystal, argillite,

granite, catalinite, steatite, nephrite, and various other siliceous stones with

cryptocrystalline form: chert, chalcedony, jasper, agate, and common opal, for

example (Keyser, 1992, p. 27; Miss et al., 1984, pp. 56-65).

Impact of European Trade on Tool Use

The arrival of trappers, trading posts, settlers and even sailors on the

Pacific coast led to the Plateau tribes, including the Nimiipuu, acquiring metal

tools such as: guns, axes, hatches, knives, farming implements, woodworking


tools and cookware (Peers, 1996). By the mid-19th century, European trade

goods had had begun to proliferate through the Plateau region.

While these new tools replaced many of the traditional stone tools, the

Nimiipuu would have continued to use stone tools for some time as they did

not yet possess the facilities to manufacture them. The Nimiipuu were

promised, though never received, a blacksmith workshop, a tinsmith

workshop, a gunsmith workshop and instruction in each trade, according to

the Nez Perce Treaty of 1855.

Ultimately, individual Nimiipuu would have continued to make stone

tools for which they were unable to acquire metal counterparts, either due to a

lack of supply or prohibitive cost.

What This Tells Us about the Nimiipuu

While the tools of everyday life may seem inconsequential at first glance,

studying what stone tools the Nimiipuu and their ancestors have used and how

they refined their manufacture and use to meet changing circumstances and

improvements in technology can tell a lot about their culture. Researching the

tools used by the Nimiipuu and the other Plateau cultures leads to the

conclusion that the Nimiipuu have been skilled diplomats and traders for many

millennia.

In addition to being skilled traders and organizers, the Nimiipuu are

shown to promote self-reliance. Demonstrated in the research is also how men

and women of the Nimiipuu were skilled at crafting their own tools for the

specific tasks they needed to complete.


The Nimiipuu have also demonstrated a will to survive and prosper. This

is seen in how they adapted to changes in their environment, from catastrophic

natural disasters and sudden shifts in food sources to the gradual refinement

of lithic technology through trade, necessity, ingenuity and a drive to learn new

ways of doing things.


References

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lithic implements of the nimiipuu

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