A favorite and healthy outdoor activity when I was growing up in central New Mexico was “arrowhead hunting.” It was a family (whoever happened to be there) activity lasting most of a day (after breakfast dishes were washed and other chores attended to). Most of my memories come from the farm/ranch of my Welch grandparents. But there were other fruitful sites. My grandmother would pack a lunch and off into the juniper/piñon forest we’d go. It involved a lot of walking – hence healthy. It'd make me feel old now.
I know that such activity is illegal now – but at that time it seemed harmless. Besides the relics of Native Americans we found lots of remnants of the early anglos/hispanics in the area. Old cartridges - .45-10’s seemed popular – bullets, broken spurs, etc. My brother once found an aluminum Catholic pendant, dated from the late 1800s, whose clasp had been worn through. Not overly remarkable except that aluminum was a rare metal in that time hence the pendant was very valuable to the owner. I wish I knew the story.
But the ancient Native American habitants provided most of the finds. We could scour anthills and find tiny turquoise beads. They were just the right size for the ants to clasp by the hole in the center and carry back to the hill. A half-day’s hunt generally yielded six or so arrowheads per person of which, perhaps, two would be unbroken. An obsidian perfect arrowhead was the crème de la crème. Three or four per year were found. Indian corn grinders – both parts – were also found. Stone hammer heads with tie guides were also found. Hundreds of pottery shards with such intricate painting on them that the whole pot must have been an artistic wonder.
The anthropologists from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque were well aware of our activity. I’m sure we were one of a few hundred such collectors they knew of. They once came, visited us, looked at our collection and explained the significance of the “Clovis Point.” We didn’t have any.
After a rainstorm was a fertile time to search because the surface ground had been disturbed revealing, perhaps, what had lying underneath. At such a time, once in an arroyo, two human skeletons had been unearthed. The anthropologists were contacted and they investigated. Neither skeleton was Jimmy Hoffa but dated to about 800AD.
Living in South Carolina now, I realize that one advantage we had in New Mexico was the lack of ground covering vegetation. Gee, you walk in the forest here and you cannot see any ground – only vines, roots, dead leaves, old moonshine stills, etc. Apparently, though there are a lot of Native American relics here. Professionals have no problem with “digs” furnishing history. Locals tell me you can find some on banks or shoals in creeks and rivers.
My brother – through a set of circumstances that he took advantage of – came into possession of all of the relics that my immediate family had found. He did a wise thing, however and donated it all to the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology.
© 2014 Lester C. Welch
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