Published - October 12, 2016
Like other aspects of Native American life, tools varied by location and materials available. However, tools were one of the more versatile products. Tribes who traded with others could easily trade tools, weapons, and occasionally other items. Trade was most common along water routes, where canoe, or other watercraft, could shorten travel time dramatically.
Tools were used in every aspect of daily life. Some of the most common were hide scrappers, arrowheads, hunting, fishing, cooking, painting and sewing tools. They could be made of bone, antler, hide, stone, obsidian, branches, leaves, sinew, or any other object found in a natural environment.
Tools are too complex to discuss in such a scratching of the surface. Each tribe developed their own. Rather than racing through creating a tool, they took their time crafting it, planing for it to last for a generation or more. Tools were not easily thrown away. They were used and reused until they could no longer function.
In my writing, I have attempted to figure out which tools survive the passage of time without technology. Although the tools of the grim future are not as colorful as their ancestors tools, they are woking their way in that direction. Corandra sees a need for art in everyday objects. She wants it to be more common. However, her ancestors have survived on the leftovers of our civilization. Only, those leftovers aren't there anymore. So she may get the chance to build a more colorful future for her descendants. Who eventually become our ancestors.
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