The long bones of buffalo, elk, caribou, bear and deer are thick, dense and hard, providing Excellent material for making long, narrow, pointed tools such as awls, hair pins, bodkins, engravers, needles and pins, as well as weaving tools (among certain native groups).
Some projectile points and harpoons were made with complex barbed bone heads. Farming hoes and various scrapers were made from flat, wide bones such as buffalo shoulder blades. Bone chisels or levers were used to remove bark from trees; bear ulnas made effective chisels.
Some bones, such as the hollow wing bones of golden eagles, made instruments like flutes and whistles. Shoulder blades with notches along the central spine made musical rasps.Various bones made fish hooks, gaming counters, arrow straighteners, and tools for shelling maize.
On the Pacific coast, whale bones made tools, war clubs and jewellery.
Among the Plains tribes, deer, horse or buffalo jaw bones made effective war clubs; other bones made necklaces, armlets, breastplates and hair ornaments.
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