Trey looks at my stone tool.  He says, “This is a depression flake.”  Meaning, it’s likely not a stone tool at all, but the beginning of one that was discarded, or just the flaked leftovers from the process of crafting an arrowhead. 

He says, “Sorry to tell you this.”  I tell him that I am not disappointed, because, “Remember we found a site, not a single piece.”  We left the rest behind.  And if this is a depression flake, then I want to know about it.

He recognizes the type of rock as coming from an area near Burns, which is about a hundred miles from where we found the stone.  He says, “People traveled a long way just to get the stone.  And they carried big chunks of it with them as they traveled.  They worked off the pieces they needed when they needed them.”

A stone artifact found we found in Southeast Oregon.

He tells me that these obsidian blades are so sharp, that some surgeons prefer to use them for their most important surgeries.  Trey pulls the deer out of the closet.  His fiancé, Jenn, has her apron and knife ready. 

We begin work.  I almost forget how worried I was about this process.  My obsidian blade cuts through the meat so easily, I even forget I am not using a knife.

A hunter and his 10 year old son join us, butchering two deer at the other table.  Deer was an important meat source for coastal tribes in Oregon; the process of butchering after a kill in the woods starts to make some sense.  The use of a stone tool; the skill of flintknapping, was one of the few practices that Indians probably learned long ago – In Africa or Asia, long before their arrival in the Americas. 

Trey made this stone tool from a rock of obsidian with a single blow. I used it to help butcher a deer.

The hunter father explains that yesterday was his son’s birthday, and he brought him to Hooter’s to celebrate.

After several hours, the hunter father begins to cook pieces of deer meat on the stove, for all of us to eat.  And the ten year-old makes several breaks from play to give Jenn long hugs.