...............Pretty rare, but a few of the Southwest groups did in fact make and use boomerangs. Keep in mind not all were intended to "come back". Most were used in close combat situations as a weapon. I've never read or heard about Eastern groups having them, but can't rule it out. We just always associate them with the indigenous peoples of Australia.
Thanks Don but unfortunately the boomerang is from Australia. I also have some stuff from New Guinea both picked up through auctions. Don is right about the weapon though. Some American tribes used a simalar weapon for hunting. The pictures on the wall are from an old Southern Pacific Railroad calendar promoting westward travel.
Interesting about the portraits. As a kid our across the street neighbor had large ones in his house.
I was told these snowshoes were Native American made, I'll like to know for sure. They have been in the family for a 100 years or so. Bob
I'd suggest sending some pix to the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC to see if they can identify the snow shoes. Better still, pack up the family and come visit the museum, which is made up of approximately 15 museums and the National Zoo. The museums are free. One of the museums is the National Air & Space museum which houses the Wright Bros. airplane and Lindberg's "The Spirit of St. Louis" among other aircraft. There is an annex to that museum that's located in Chantilly, VA, and houses some space vehicles and the SR-71 Blackbird. The main Smithsonian museum is located on the National Mall which has other places to visit as well, such as the U.S. Capitol and Washington Monument. See https://www.si.edu/ and https://www.si.edu/visit for more info. There's still three months of good weather left, at least. You won't regret it. Another thought is the University of CT may also have a department on local history that might be able to identify them.
Those snowshoes are very much like a pair my Grandpa Cox had. At one time he made a living being a hunting/fishing guide in the Adirondacks of N.Y. By the time I came along, Gram and Gramp had moved into town and he proceeded to school me in the ways of the woods (I was pretty young as he passed when I was about 8). He had my trying to walk in the snow with these things and I remember them being as long as I was tall! Thanks for sharing this, it jogged another great memory.
This knife was given to me by my uncle many years ago after his son had passed. Jack collected Indian artifacts and this was among his collection. My uncle knew I collected knives and thought I would like it. Appears to be an old butcher knife that has been re-handled using a large piece of bone filled with lead and decorated with pieces of copper sheeting. The blade has an arrow etched into one side and a snake into the other. Not sure exactly how old it is or what tribe it was from but it looks like pre-1900 to me.
You got me thinking about the prints and who did the originals. Winold Reiss painted the original portraits for Great Northern Railway not the Southern Pacific. It's been a while since I looked them over. From the net:
Found these doing spring cleaning. Haven’t seen them in years. Sharks/skate teeth were found when the kids were little.
I worked interstate pipelines for many years , I have seen many many points dug up and broken by the equipment . Man kind has really evolved in some ways and stalled out completely on others .
The Jalopy Journal
