Archeologists say that clubs and spears preceded the more sophisticated bow and arrow by untold ages of time. When early man picked up the knob-ended long bone of an animal to protect himself from beast or man, or to chide an irritating spouse or relative, he had discovered a tool. When he learned to throw the tool and hit what he aimed at, he had made a first step towards skill. When he found that he could poke a target with a long tapered stick, he had acquired a weapon. When he found that he could sharpen a stick whose end had been hardened when it had been partially burned, he entertained a dawning thought in the art of self-defense. But when he deliberately shaped an object so that it could do something better than any natural object, he took his first step toward civilization.

A very important and early step was lashing a sharp piece of broken stone or bone, to the end of a stick to create a spear. Later, when he learned to shape the bone, and still later when he learned to chip or flake certain stones to a special shape, he had achieved a "point." The arrowhead, a very specialized point, was still far in the future, perhaps thousands of years away. In that interval the Indian learned to do extremely delicate work in the making of points and in so doing had acquired an art.

The bow and arrow came late in history. The bows, being wooden and their strings being fiber or sinew, naturally decayed, so it is hardly likely we shall ever find a fossil one. The bone arrowheads likewise decayed, but it is not rare to find various kinds of stone arrowheads in our area.

They did not displace the stone-headed club, which was needed to administer the deathblow to game animals and enemy alike at times. Where a "buffalo pound" or "buffalo jump" was used year after year, it was not uncommon to leave the clubs on the site for the next hunting band, instead of carrying the heavy burdens. Trappers have told of finding caches of such stones, grooved to hold the rawhide tightly to the club handle - an example of communal sharing. Even the horny hoofs of bison, elk, or moose could make a very light weight but effective weapon to carry.

According to a story told to Dr. Pliny E. Goddard, the local Beavers had bows and arrows and had come a very long way down the path to civilization. This was especially true in respect to hunting, aggression and self-defense, in which they excelled until the Crees got guns first. Even after that the great battle preceding the Peace of Unchagah proved that what they lacked in arms, they made up in strategy.