Northern California Artifacts. What to do with them?

[VaderSpade]

40 years ago I was obsessed with collecting and I built a pretty good collection.

All the laws and negative feeling on collecting (especially here in CA) turned me off to collecting and my collection has not seen the light of day for 20+ years.

How do I find new homes for my collection with running afoul of the law. Most of these were inherited and were collected 50+ years ago.

Just the tip of the iceberg.

 

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[VaderSpade]

I'm a little frustrated that it takes a half a day to get post approved Makes it impossible to have a real time conversion.

 

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[GB Paleo]

Beautiful collection VaderSpade. Being from your general area, you definitely have some excellent examples of different point styles. You will have no problem selling your collection and Bennett's is a good one to sell thru.

 

[jamus peek]

Really cool Im from the Sf Bay Area. I am curious of the type of netweights and bolo stones you have found. Do you have any pics or a reference?

Thank you for showing us part of your collection.

 

[VaderSpade]

Really cool Im from th Sf Bay Area. I am curious of the type of netweights and bolo stones you have found. Do you have any pics or a reference.

Thank you for showing us part of your collection.

I will need to get to my storage unit to take more pictures. The net weights are skipping stones with notches on either side to tie them onto the nets. I have at least 100 of those. Most were found in one area where you could just imagine a nets rotting away and leaving the net weights.

 

[rock]

Beautiful all of it. Id be more than happy to take some of them off your hands and skip the auction. I take messages

 

[T.C.]

Lots of personal finds. Most were found SCUBA diving on private property in a river that is in the heart of the pacific flyway for geese and ducks (almost in Oregon). Unlike land hunting MOST of the points were near perfect as they were shot at sitting ducks, sank to the bottom without hitting the ground. I'm sure the flaked birds reflected respect for one of their main food sources. I also had quite a few bolo stones, net weights, and fish hooks.

What I didn't find I bought from my brother and a friend that hunted with us, so I was there when most were found. The balance of the collection was inherited from my old gold mining partner. We were mining in an artifact rich area. Most of his finds were before I met him but we worked together for years and he showed me where every piece came from.

The major exception was the slave killer I paid $2,000.00 for that and would love to have it authenticated. I found it at an estate sale in Eureka Ca. The finder was dead and the family didn't know where it came from. I went to the Eureka museum where I saw a 2/3 sized nearly exact match.

I was gonna say, from looking at that "slave killer," you must be up in my neck of the woods (So Ore./NorCal). I've heard stories of the slave killers made in pairs. The smaller one was supposedly shown to other tribal members and the larger one was kept well hidden. Years ago, slave killers, when they did come up for sale, went for five figures easily. Now, the market is flooded with all the "ol timers" collections being broke up and sold. Prices are way down for Great Basin artifacts compared to a few years back. I know of one 'ol timer that used to hunt with Caroll Howe. When Jim passed away his entire collection was broken up and is at this time being sold off.

 

[newnan man]

What is a "slave killer"? Did NA's in the area have slaves? Why kill them. Seems odd.

 

[T.C.]

What is a "slave killer"? Did NA's in the area have slaves? Why kill them. Seems odd.

Yes, the locals in my area preyed on the "weaker" tribes. The Shastas, (Nor/Cal), were routinely taken as slaves for the keeping or taken to the Dalles in northern Oregon to be traded for horses and other items. They were killed when they no longer served any useful purpose. Remember the story of Sacajawea? She was taken as a slave and ran across her long lost brother while enroute to the West coast. A lot of tribes practiced slavery...
The "slave killer" was more of a status symbol, but it has also been said, they were used to put slaves to death and were notched like an old Western gunfighter.
Caroll Howe's books were very informative on the tribes around SoOre/NorCal. He was involved with a few archeological digs. Nightfire Island comes to mind...

 

[MosesOfTheSouth]

40 years ago I was obsessed with collecting and I built a pretty good collection.

All the laws and negative feeling on collecting (especially here in CA) turned me off to collecting and my collection has not seen the light of day for 20+ years.

How do I find new homes for my collection with running afoul of the law. Most of these were inherited and were collected 50+ years ago.

Just the tip of the iceberg.

with spikes like the left and upper majority display.. was the design intended to be like buckshot? some little tiny extra flint front facing barb.. cutting a vein hopefully/ increasing percentage of immobilizing? like the crescents, just spiky? really interesting collection. porcupine points

 

[MosesOfTheSouth]

or more a hollow point man stopper?

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

Hey, avoid the laws and just GIVE ME the collection....!
Private Message me....
and, thanks!

 

[VaderSpade]

Shasta County is known for those serrated points.