Closed Captions Audio Described

Two Grand Ronde tribal members demonstrate traditional flint-napping techniques used to create arrowheads and tools from obsidian. They explain pressure-flaking and percussion methods, discuss the cultural significance of handmade artifacts, and emphasize proper handling of sharp obsidian materials. The presenters share knowledge about tool attachment, hunting applications, and the importance of protecting archaeological sites.

Transcript

0:01 And all of the people they met to the local communities. And this tent of many voices is just that we bring people in from different backgrounds, different walks of life and different perspectives to tell their side of the story of Lewis and Clark's story of the cultural story of the local area. And today we are very pleased to have with us, Misty Blakely
0:26 and Deanna Wheeler, both from Grand Ron and they're going to do some flint napping for us. So let's please make them welcome.
0:38 Thank you. Huh? Are these two too close? No, they should be fine. Thanks a lot. Good morning. Hi, everybody.
0:47 I'm gonna show you how to do the traditional way of making arrowsheads. We're taking each other.
0:57 I'm gonna start out with be way cut out with the rock saw. or there's
1:07 and these are very sharp, the sides of them
1:14 see
1:18 very sharp. They can hear me though now. They can,
1:24 I'll move my chair over here so they can see you got your larger piece and do some damage here. Yeah. Not too bad. The leather is to protect your leg because it will cut you badly. What you do is you take your blank and you just push down, I'll be ready and flakes of obsidian will come off. You do that all the way up each side
1:56 and you use a down pressure motion, kind of like a flip on it.
2:10 Mhm.
2:13 Yeah. So I'm on halfway down and then I'll go ahead and do that.
2:17 That's what you're getting. You just keep flaking it off a little bit at a time. But you just, and eventually it'll get thinner and sharper.
2:28 You got to use the right amount of pressure or you'll just get a little piece and it won't flake all the way across the stone here. This is a halfway
2:35 and normally you would take, they would come off a big chunk of obsidian and they would take, what do they call that little whacker antler bone to use? And you get a, you know, a concussion in it, you hit it just right and a thin chunk will come off. Not like, you know, your modern day.
2:58 Yeah. Well, she, she's doing the pressure, flaking,
3:02 pressure,
3:05 napping, it's napping, flaking, whatever you'd like to call it.
3:11 They didn't have copper milling the way they would do it is they would just take a piece of antler. This is a little bit big for a blank. But let me get this one flicked down and I'll show you the way they did it
3:24 with using obsidian flakes. They're a lot thinner in layers along when they flake off the stone in using a rock side, cut them out and they have different colors of sid too. That's a big one up here. Diana is the mahogany obsidian.
3:59 Very nice. I have a six year old nephew, I taught how to do these
4:04 and he doesn't cut himself nearly as much as I do.
4:10 So, you have to get that broke down on each side or flacked off,
4:15 take it and this is the way they did it. They would tap along the edge
4:28 and you don't have to hit it hard. You just got to have to hit it at the right angle.
4:52 Huh?
4:56 That's the thing about obsidian. It just flakes, it flakes really nicely.
5:06 Oh, no, it's ok. They're supposed to do that
5:14 traditionally though. They would use bone or antler, either one. So, and it kind of hit it at an angle here just taking a little bit off the sides of the time.
5:25 Misty, what are you using on your leg for protection? The thickest piece of leather I can find. Yeah.
5:35 Always protect your leg and you're supposed to have gloves, but I can't do it with gloves.
5:44 I know when I was taught, they taught us to hold it with the piece of leather when we were doing the, the pressure plate. Huh? Like that. Yeah. Like that. And you know, it kind of protects your hands or you're gonna need a big box of band.
5:58 Mhm.
6:03 And the thing about doing it this way is you waste a lot more of the rock because they had a lot more of it then, I guess, than they do now. So, but that you can let them feel that. Do you sh it is? It's just like glass. Ok. But don't cut yourself. Yeah. Very, very sharp.
6:28 I know when I took the class we were told the story of a man that made his own surgical tools out of obsidian and, um, had his surgery done with them and he had virtually no scarring.
6:50 Is that ok?
6:54 Mhm.
6:56 Very, very sharp.
6:59 Yeah. Very sharp.
7:06 Yeah. Very nice. Very nicely. You slice your skin.
7:17 That was a good flake.
7:24 And you're supposed to have a protection on and all that stuff. But I just take my chances. I'm more comfortable with it just like this
7:31 so far. I've been lucky.
7:39 You just keep taking it down a little bit on the sides as it gets thinner and thinner. Mm.
7:46 And the thing about if you ever find arrowheads like in fields or anywhere like that, each arrowhead has its own individual story. One warrior made that it was one warrior's arrow and that's it. It didn't belong to anybody else. They weren't mass produced. It's got its own story. Just like all of the kitchen stuff. You find the rocks, the grinding stones, that's one made stuff, one woman, you know,
8:10 that's what it's always intrigued me about it is it's just one person. Did you tell him about the removal of them?
8:19 If you ever find an artifact anywhere, you should not remove it. Because once you take your artifact or whatever, it may be out of its place, you lose part of the story because now it's removed and there's probably other artifacts around there, you put it all together and you have a story. So once you take a part of that away, then that it's missing part of the story and you really don't know,
8:41 you can't call your culture department in your area if you find something. Yeah. Your cultural department.
8:52 We are ground on tribal members. I was born and raised and I was born, I've lived here my whole life. So, but we both took a cultural technician class and that's where we learned the history that we know about this
9:09 cultural site protection. We learned all that we're certified.
9:16 See, you see, I'm taking it down quite a bit and once I get it down so thin, then I will go around the edge and just kinda fine tune it so to speak.
9:30 And it's ok if it breaks off because that happens a lot. Just start over work with what you got. Story of my life. Yeah.
9:44 And you don't do the end of it. If you're doing it out of blanks, don't do the bulk of this until you're all done making the rest of it because that's your gripper there. You don't wanna, yeah, you don't want that sharp, that's for sure.
10:32 Ok. Now that I've got it down so thin on the side, I'm gonna go ahead and make it to where it'll be able to cut grass
10:41 and you just lay it down flat and you just kind of go
10:47 click it along the sides.
10:50 I broke that one here. Bummer. Great. It was supposed to be though.
10:57 Sorry, we didn't do nothing. Another piece, a big piece. That was what I started with was a big blank. This is what I have. That's the way it works. And with obsidian as you flake it off, it'll taper itself and if you get too far on one side or you, you know, the sharp side is not even,
11:20 just flip it over and go the other way and it'll even itself out.
11:35 And the really, the really neat part of, of this, this Flint napping is our ancestors. I mean, we found some arrowheads that are just itty bitty. I mean, just really tiny. You know, and that's some talent. Yeah, I've never found any. I, I make people have found them. We haven't found that we've seen them. I've seen them.
11:56 Mhm.
11:59 Out and into the bandy. You need a tourniquet.
12:04 Seriously. You
12:08 see why you're supposed to wear gloves.
12:17 This,
12:20 I was flint napping one night and a big flake came off and it went right through the leather and into my leg and it was, that was a bad one.
12:32 They bleed? Oh, do they bleed? Yeah. Pretty clean cuts. They bleed pretty bad.
12:46 I'm not going to sharpen the tip of this one because I want you to take it around and show it to everybody. So there's gonna be kids touching it.
13:17 Fleeting back. Huh? That's why she gets to do this part because I'm a big weenie. I don't like the, I don't like to bleed.
13:27 I get no pleasure in it. Believe me.
13:55 Can you get that last piece off? What? I can't get this one.
14:00 I got blood all over it.
14:03 Give an idea. I clean it off where he goes biohazard
14:12 and remember she started out with this big old chunk of glass Sidon.
14:21 That's not my best work. But, you know, at the time I'm given we were, we were just yarded out for a second. We need you.
14:34 You guys snuck up on me. I didn't see this whole row fill up anybody have any questions.
14:41 The size of the arrowhead.
14:47 Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, I'm leaning over a fall over on you guys here. No, I was just simply asking that. I'm assuming the size of the arrowhead would determine what kind of game you would be able to bring down. Well, yeah, you wouldn't want to use one this size to kill a bird.
15:04 Yeah.
15:08 These ones, this size anything a little bit bigger than this was probably for spears
15:14 you can get, I don't usually attach any of the ones green. That's all,
15:23 all right. Some questions for Misty Indiana. No, it's a, it's a, you got an antler. She had pressure flaking and then she hits it with an antler. And could you describe how they're attached? Yeah. What you do is just a piece of copper. You take your arrow, which is your stick and you split it at the top, you split it down like this.
15:47 Then you take your arrowhead and you put it in like that and you wrap it with pressure, hold that, put a little bit wing it and
15:55 it comes off and layers and then that's the way the rock or the glass of obsidian. I'm sorry, ss is pretty tough
16:05 and they would hit him with the stick. I mean, you just put it down in there and your stick will come up on it when you break a piece off and you take your, and you, it around like that and you know, and you take that and you shape it and I'm bleeding really bad and you know, it's all kinds of anybody else have any other questions.
16:29 I hope I have all the answers. I kind of a question kind of guy here. What have you found? Like the arrowheads associated with any of the animal bones to make a connection?
16:40 Yeah, they find them. Yeah. Like for instance, if the animal ran off with the arrow in it and that sort of thing. I'm sure they have. I have not personally, I don't know of any documentation. I've never seen any but the Cultural Department I'm sure has some,
16:57 oh, you can have it some other questions for Misty Indiana. This has been awesome. Thank you so much for coming in and showing us how to flint nap. Uh, this is amazing. Those of you that are here might want to see some more of this and I believe you're set up over in the tent next door. Yeah, I got a booth over there and if you're curious about Flint napping coming over and I'll show you a little bit closer, just watch your eyes.
17:23 Anything is I just get to blood off the chair. All right, let's give them a big hand. Thank you. Thank you.
17:32 Thank you very much.

Tent of Many Voices

Misty Blakely and Deanna Wheeler: Traditional Obsidian Flint-Napping

Misty Blakely

Grand Ronde

17:36

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Misty Blakely and Deanna Wheeler: Traditional Obsidian Flint-Napping

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