The Brookings County Museum in Volga recently received a Native American stone tool that weighs 19.5 pounds. Its by far the largest Native American stone weapon, tool or ornament in the museums collection.
The stone was donated by Mike Slocum of Sioux Falls. It joins the museums several dozen stone hammers, axes, scrapers, hoes, arrowheads and stones that were used for crushing animal bones for the marrow that was mixed with ground meats, animal fat, edible grasses, roots and berries for nutritious, long-lasting and portable meal known as pemmican.
Modern-day sledgehammer heads can weigh up to about 20 pounds, but Slocums stone appears to be too large and heavy to be fastened to a thick wooden handle and used as a maul.
Museum officials are not sure how such a heavy, grooved stone was used.
It is believed that Sioux bands and tribes emerged from what is now southwestern Minnesota onto the prairies that later became Dakota Territory early in the 18th century, so some of the stone items in the museum might be at least 400 years old.
Many of the museum artifacts were found in the area around Lake Poinsett, the southern shore of which extends into Brookings County. For centuries, that area was a welcoming haven and an ideal hunting and fishing ground for Native Americans.
Natives also camped along the Big Sioux River and in other areas in the county. Worked stone items are found throughout Brookings County, most commonly in the fields and wooded draws surrounding lakes.
It is not known where the Slocum stone tool was found, but its size and weight indicate it was probably a stationary tool, not one that was packed up and carried on a lengthy journey.
The purpose of most of the museums stone items can easily be imagined. But what the Slocums artifact was intended to do is a mystery. He surmised that it may have been an anchor for the leashing of a dog.
But why would an individual invest the tremendous time and effort required to chisel out a groove in the stones girth to hold a leashed dog in place when a tree branch hammered into the ground would have been sufficient for the job?
Perhaps it was used to help hold down a teepee during strong winds, tied to an edge of the teepee during fierce storms.
It might have been used to break large tree branches into firewood, but why would the stone be grooved for that purpose? Hands could have lifted and dropped or thrown the stone at a branch to break it.
It might have been used as a weight to stretch a buffalo hide as it dried out.
Another theory is that it was used as an anchor to harness a favorite horse close to the camp of its Native American owner.
The leash on the harness would have been measured and fastened around the neck of the horse, allowing it to graze and move around, but short enough so that if the horse tried to flee, the stone would prevent it from running far.
The museum welcomes suggestions about the heavy grooved stones use.
The museum in Volga is open daily, including Sundays, from 1 to 4 p.m. There is no admission charge. Visit the museum, inspect the stone tool and join the crowd in guessing its intended use.
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