California Indian
tools were used for collecting, hunting, building and trading.
The early California native peoples were skilled in creating the tools to navigate their world, feed their families and trade with neighboring tribes. Most of their tools were made of organic materials like animal sinew, bone, shell, driftwood and stone. Today, when a site is discovered, obsidian cutting tools and stone grinding bowls are the most likely artifacts to have survived.
Chumash
According to the UCLA Stunt Ranch Reserve, the Chumash people lived between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago in an area of California from San Luis Obispo to Malibu. Their tribal grounds had plentiful edible plants and seafood, so they were able to trade with other tribes for things they didn't have, like obsidian for making knives and spears. The Chumash quarried soapstone from Santa Catalina Island. It was easily carved and could be used for rounded cooking pots and flat skillets called comoles because it did not crack when heated. For coastal trade the Chumash made tomol, canoes of flat wooden planks similar to those used by the Tongva. The Chumash used whale bones to split logs into planks for the canoes. Bird bones served as sewing needles, and animal sinew became a strong twine for lashing things together.
Tongva
The Tongva people lived in the entire Los Angeles basin---Los Angeles and all of present-day Orange County---from as early as 15,000 to 9,000 B.C., according to Tongva tribal history published by Keepers of Indigenous Ways, a Tongva nonprofit organization. Archaeological sites discovered in recent times have yielded obsidian cutting and chipping tools, as well as grindstones---important for preparing a diet staple of acorn meal---made from sandstone and soapstone. The Tongva sailed out into the Pacific in canoes they called titi'at, built of hewn planks lashed together with plant fiber cording and caulked with resin from pine trees or tar from the La Brea tar pits. They carved paddles from solid pieces of wood inlaid with whale bone and abalone shell; most of the wood for the canoes and paddles came from driftwood logs washed ashore. The Tongva used stone and bone drills to make holes in the planks for lashing, and heated the tar and resin over fires in stone bowls so it would be soft enough to apply to their canoes.
Nicoleno
The Nicoleno people---an island tribe living in the Channel Islands for thousands of years, according to archaeological evidence published by the National Park Service---are considered to be related to the Tongva. An article in the March 18, 2001, Los Angeles Times tells the story of a lone survivor of a probable massacre on San Nicolas Island, off the California coast, who was discovered in 1853 with handmade tools she used for daily necessities. She made fish hooks from shells and needles from bird bones. With the needles she sewed clothing of cormorant feathers; for thread she used seal sinews. To skin the seals, she used part of an iron hoop that may have washed ashore or been left behind by sailors and the fur trappers who massacred her people. The surviving woman, named Juana Maria by Spanish missionaries, also wove baskets of rushes and continued to make bone needles and other domestic tools even after she was rescued and transferred to the mainland. Her fictionalized story was the basis for a book, "Island of the Blue Dolphins."
Related posts
Weapons were used for hunting and fighting.A variety of tools and weapons were used by American Indian tribes in North America. Weapons were used for hunting and fighting, either between tribes or...
Crow Indians were adept at hunting on horseback using bows and arrows.The Crow Indians called themselves the Apsaalooke. This word means "children of a large beaked bird" and the transla...
The Indian's tomahawk was a brutal and effective weapon.Native Americans used a variety of tools and weapons in their daily lives. They employed tools for preparing and storing food. Creating and...
In the Crow tribe, the women are responsible for building and maintaining the homeThe Crow Native American tribe traditionally lived in the Yellowstone River valley, but today their home is a rese...
The Cherokee are Native Americans originally from the Southeastern United States, in states such as Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. The Cherokee were proud craftspeople who took pride in thei...
