Flintknapping - chipping sharp-edged tools from brittle, glass-like rock - is my first love in the traditional arts.  My uncle got me started chipping stone points when I was in second grade- this is what brought me into culture.  The first jobs I did for Choctaw Nation were teaching flintknapping classes for Tribal youth.  I paid for my last semester of college tuition chipping points.

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Flintknapping is one of the oldest human technologies and arts, dating back more than 2 million years.  The different types of stone that these tools are made from each have their own deep stories of the landscapes they come from. Complex stone tools, like spear points were made in different styles through time.  Each style is tied to particular raw materials, tools, and flaking techniques that were developed and passed down by generations Indigenous communities  in their homelands. Every point is also an artistic performance.  Unlike a music concert that vanishes on the wind, the performance is recorded in stone where it will remain for hundreds of thousands of years. On the end of a spear or an arrow, stone weapons have featured prominently millions of riveting human stories. Over time, the past people who lived those experiences have left this world, but the stone remain to tell its part of those stories.

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The core of my flintknapping work comes from the stones and flaking styles used by Choctaw ancestors in the homeland.  I also do some work in the lithic traditions of the different places I've lived including the eastern Plains and New Mexico. I only use traditional tools to chip stone.  Most of mine are made from wood, antler, and bone, harvested on our farm.  For blog posts on specific flintwork projects at Nan Awaya Farm, please see here, here, and here.

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Pecking and grinding is a second stone-working technique.  It's used for shaping coarser-grained rocks to make durable tools, like axe heads.  The first formal class that I ever taught was a pecking and grinding session at a traditional skills event when I was 17. 

 

Use the right arrow on the image below to peruse some of my stone work through the years.  Double click if you're browsing on a cell phone.

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