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Dakota (Sioux) Method of forming stone implements.
Lower Brule Agency in South Dakota. In the dry plains where food is so scarce that the Dakota may Journey for days and find no animal to kill for food, other than a rattle snake, the pemican plays an important part in sustaining life a quantity of pemican stowed away in a bag usually forms a part of every indians out fit and when over taken by hunger a pinch of pemican is put into his mouth and allowed to macerate and is finally swallowed containing no salt it produces no thirst or its use would cause the most intense torture. The Dakota country unlike that of the Ojibway furnishes no water that is potable except in the rivers the ponds and spring under in the snow capped mountain regions are alkaline and bitter, hence the Dakota indian may travel for days without a drink of water. The Pemican Mallet and its use naturally leads to the discussion of method of making the mallet heads and other stone implements. The subject of arrow and spear heads is treated of in another place. The Dakota indian uses a good deal of stone of the harder variety in his domestic life and at war, the articles he uses are as a rule such as may be easily adapted from materials he finds ready to his hand in nature. In our drawing we show the method of forming the head of a war club. The rounded stone picked up at the river bank or elsewhere that will answer the purpose is held in one hand and placed upon a stone as an anvil with another stone he pounds the rock to be worked turning it from side to side and shifted the position till the required form is obtained, By holding the rock as shown a [?] effect is obtained from the blow one on top by direct action the other beneath forms resistance. To form gneiss stones having an edge are selected. In some cases the war clubs and other articles are left in the rough state, others and notably the war club is rubbed down upon a rock till it is smooth about polished. In these cases however it is usually only such articles as are to be left uncovered. Those which are covered with a covering of skin usually are left in the rough state.