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116 [Image]

blade

Ojibway curved knife used in making bowls. Minn. Hist. Soc. Coll (Haupt del) length of blade 4 1/3 inches

  "         Handle           3 ½      '
  "   " head (from mane) 3       "

The Ojibway or their ancestors of old no doubt used the same methods for we find (six unclear words in parentheses) that some of these new club-heads were smooth and finished others left rough. ? said that the harder kinds of rock were used for making war clubs and this is true with a few exceptions as we believe. in another place we show a war club owned by one of Sitting Bull's band made of the red pipe stone. In the collection of Lieutenant Geo H. [[?Ciche?] is a war club made from the horn of the "Big Horn Sheep."

 The knife forms a most important part of the outfit of an indian as well as the civilized man, and to day the knife of domestic manufacture among the indians is not to be found.  the only approach to an original knife we have seen is the one shown above.  "Ojibway curved knife."   This is said to have been made by the Ojibway and to be original but there is so much of the white man about it we are inclined to fear that while indian hands may  have [crossed out: fielded the hammer at]  manipulated the forge, white man's [crossed out: brains]  intellect directed them.  However this knife was used by the indians in carving their bowls and dishes of wood a description of which will follow in its proper place.   The blade is short and curved and is well adapted to use of indian. under the head of [?pininkimik. on k'mih knech?] we show how the Ojibway grasps his knife in [?] the  [?] which is their usual method of drilling.  the reverse of that of a white man.  The handle of this knife is of hard wood cut as is seen with a horse head upon it by way of ornament as we have elsewhere remarked the Ojibway indians do a good dal of carving except on pipes we recall no carved mark among the Dakota.  this may be due to the absence of wood among that people but it would seem that even their articles made of wood they have and [?] they prefer beads and quill to carving as a means of ornamentation. of course now and then we find departures from this rule as in the carved par flesche in another place.  In former time the Dakota used most likely knifes of flint and obsidian and bone but now of course the [?] convenient and less difficult to purchase knife of the white man has superceeded all native articles of that kind.