For American Indians in the Columbia Plateau, the Columbia River was not only a major transportation route, but also provided an abundant fishery. In harvesting fish, Indian people would often use nets which would be weighted down with stone anchors.
In Washington, Adam East was an avid collector of American Indian artifacts. Born in 1871, East began collecting these artifacts as a child and his collection grew to over 2,200 items. Eventually his collection formed the basis of the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center where it is currently displayed.
While making stone tools that required a sharp edge usually involved knapping, making net weights and anchors involved grinding a groove around the stone or griding notches so that a line could be attached. A variety of different stones could be used. According to the display:
“Net sinkers were made from river cobbles and secured nets. There were various types of net sinkers: notched, banded, and perforated. Many banded sinkers were very large and a couple could anchor a net in current quite well.”
Shown below are some of the fishing net weights and canoe anchors which East collected. As with many Cabinets of Curiosities, the displays project little information about the context in which the artifacts were found. While these displays are interesting to look at, for most people they provide relatively little information about ancient Native American people and their cultures.
Ancient America
This series explores the history of the Americas prior to the European invasions using data from archaeology and museum collections. More from this series:
Ancient America: A very brief overview of the Hopewell moundbuilders
Ancient America: A very brief overview of the Adena moundbuilders
Ancient America: A collection of stone tools (photo diary)
Ancient America: A very brief overview of stone quarries
Ancient America: Avonlea, the early bow hunters
Ancient America: Methow Indian rock art (photo diary)
Ancient America: Astronomy
Ancient America: Columbia River Pictographs (Photo Diary)