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311 Dakota Spear Head

[Image]

Dakota (Sioux) Spear head (Obsidian.) Haupt Coll. & del.

actual size.

The Northern Dakota indians formed spear heads from the obsidian found in the National Yellowstone Park. In the North Western corner of what was formerly Wyoming Territory now the Yellowstone Park. is a cliff of Obsidian several hundred feet high. from this the wandering bands of Dakotas procured the material to make spear heads and other impliments. [sic] Obsidian is readily chipped and is therefore easily fashioned into impliments at the same time it is not a common article with the indians. The supply is inexhaustable. but the region in which it is found does not please the noble red man. The geysers of that region and the sulphur that is poured out in gas in certain regions. filling the atmosphere with the fumes of pulphur. [sic] and rending the air with thunderings and roaring induce in the mind of the indians the belief in the tradition that that region is the abode of the evil one and they do not visit it. this Spear head with one similar to it but in fragments was picked up by the writer at an old camp site on the "Soda Butte Creek." near the Soda Butte. in Montana where it had lain for many years. the grass had covered it We have reason to believe that it was owned probably by one of the Indians belonging to Chief Joseph's band as they took the route of Soda Butte creek in a retreat before General Miles in 1877 This specimen is chipped from a piece of obsidian uniformly black. and is three and three eighths inches long. and two inches wide, by one half an inch in thickness. the edges are somewhat round. The two specimens in the authors collection are the only ones we have seen among the Dakota tribes. The crows live quite near the Obsidian cliff. but news of them seem to have [?] to venture into that region in search of this material for their Spears or Arrow heads.