The Cashmere Museum in Cashmere, Washington includes several exhibits of collections of ancient American Indian artifacts found in the Columbia River area. The artifacts in this exhibit (exhibit number 21) provide examples of tools used by prehistoric people who hunted (primarily elk and deer), fished (primarily salmon and sturgeon), and gathered wild plants for food, fiber, and medicine.
Stone Bowls
Shown above is a decorated stone bowl which was probably used for processing plants.
Shown above is a stone bowl.
Shown above is a small stone bowl used for preparing paint. The material in the bowl is ocher which would be ground and then mixed with a binder to produce paint.
Stone Points and Blades
The points on the left were made by a chipping or knapping process while the blades on the right were made with a grinding process.
Shown above are some halfted scrapers used in processing hides.
Stone Mauls
Stone Pipes
Shown above are some tubular pipes used for smoking tobacco.
Smoking—more specifically, the use of the pipe—is a cultural pattern that goes back for more than 2,000 years according to the archaeological data. Along the Columbia River, there were two types of stone pipes: an elbow pipe which was associated with the Upper Chinookans and a tubular pipe used by the Columbia Sahaptins. Tobacco (Nicotania attenuata) was cultivated by broadcasting the seeds in a plot which had been burned. When tobacco was not available, the people used kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) and when tobacco was available it was often mixed with kinnikinnick.
Stone Clubs
Combs
Unidentified artifacts
More Ancient America
Ancient America: The atlatl and the bow (museum exhibit)
Ancient America: Columbia River cave artifacts (museum exhibit)
Ancient America: A collection of Columbia River stone artifacts (museum exhibit 204)
Ancient America: Northwest Coast Stone Bowls (Photo Diary)
Ancient America: Carved Stone Figures in the Plateau (Photo Diary)
Ancient America: Changing Technologies and Trade in California
Ancient America: A collection of stone fishing weights (photo diary)
Ancient America: Ohio Ceremonial Earthworks (museum tour)