Wayne Parker, Ralls, Texas
Perhaps the rarest, most sought after, most unusual, and most interesting artifacts found in the Southwest area are the five different types of the Tang knives. The relative scarcity of these blades, together with the variety of forms among them, seems to indicate they could belong to a culture of their own. Some of these knives may have been picked up by later Indians, who re-touched them and transformed them into drills, thus helping extend the reasons for their scarcity.
In Texas, the Tang knives are classified into five different types: (1) diagonal corner tang; (2) base tang; (3) back tang; (4) mid-back tang; and, (5) re-worked tangs, which usually take the form of drills. A brief description of these five types is as follows:
1. Diagonal Tang — This type should be regarded as the standard for these blades. This is usually a triangle form with the tang occupying one of the corners at the base. About 50% of all tang knives are of this type. The diagonal blade would be very convenient for skinning hides.
2. Base Tang — This blade is of the spearhead type, with the tang located at the base end. Many people consider this type a lance and not a knife, while others believe it was hafted on a small handle and used as a knife. Most of these blades are curved or have a convex edge and could have been used for cutting. Knives of this kind may reveal the first indication of development of all corner tang types.
3. Back Tang — This type of knife still has the tang near the corner of the base, but on the side and not in the corner. These are only slightly different from the diagonal type of knife. This one may also have been used for skinning. It would have also made a good chopping blade or fleshing knife of the scraper type.
4. Mid-Back Tang — Here is a specialized form of the corner tang group. It was probably used as a scraper more than a skinning tool. This one is usually a triangular blade with the tang being located at the point of the triangle. This artifact is very scarce among the tang knife groups.
5. Re-worked Tangs — These are re-chipped tang knives which probably were picked up by later people and transformed into drills.
Tang knives vary in length from 1 to 9 inches; however, the average length is from 3 to 4 inches.
Wooden handles were inserted on the tang and were glued with gum and wrapped with cord made from yucca fiber or deer sinew.
The writer knows of only one corner tang knife which is still preserved and intact with the wooden handle. This outstanding piece belongs to a personal friend, Mr. Frank Runkles, of Post, Texas. This item was picked up by Miss Ulla Parsons in eastern Colorado after her father was killed during a wagon train attack in 1850. This prized relic was presented to the father of Frank Runkles just before Miss Parsons died. The tool was later handed down to Frank, who considers it to be a “ceremonial tomahawk.” Mr. Runkles says that the blade is typical of central Texas corner tangs in shape, size, and material. This notable artifact is inserted in a split handle of oak and lashed first with rawhide thongs and then with strips of sinew. This is a very rare and unusual piece, and is considered to be the only one of its kind in existence. The blade is made from bluish-gray and mottled flint, is four and one-half inches long and slightly less than two inches wide at the haft. The handle on this artifact is 17 inches long.
Uses and Distribution
Almost every person who owns or has seen a tang knife has his or her own opinion about how and what they were used for. Some people think they were used as battle axes, as medicine-man tools, as ceremonial tomahawks, and even as flint guillotines. Other conceptions for uses of this knife are hafted ripping tools used for cutting, skinning, scraping, and perhaps even scalping. I personally think that it was a hafted utility knife or tool used for many different purposes, as stated previously.
Doctor J. T. Patterson seemed to think that the corner tang artifacts were developed in central Texas, and that the distribution to other states was made by the movement of the tribes within the Plains area. He states that one of the migration paths is said to have been along the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. This could mean that specimens secured in Texas were carried north where they were duplicated by other tribes of Indians. A few of these knives have been found through Colorado and Wyoming, as far north as Montana, and as far east as Illinois and Mississippi. However, the largest concentration (and possible home base) of the tang knife family belongs to Bell, Comanche, Coryell, and Bastrop counties of central Texas. There have been more tang knives found on the surface and dug from middens in Bell County than from any other area. Bell County could truly be the birthplace of this unusually-shaped knife.
In a survey made by Patterson in 1937, Texas showed 608 of these specimens, of which the counties listed above showed the greatest amount. Since 1937, there have been many more tang knives found over all the Western states, as well as some in the eastern states.
Most of the tang knives dug from middens in central Texas have been dated around 1,000–2,000 B.C. Many tang knives have been found in the sand hills of West Texas. These are thought to be from the middle to late Archaic stage, but this hasn’t been correlated as yet. These sand hills produce artifacts from the Historic period back to Paleo times intermixed on the same sites due to massive sandstorms. It may be hard to put a date on these relics in West Texas until someone finds one in an undisturbed strata with a refuse deposit.
References
Meroney, W.P. “Corner Notched Tomahawk,” Texas archaeological Society, Vol. I, p. 30, 1935.
Patterson, J. T. “Corner Tang Artifacts of Texas”, University of Texas Bulletin No. 3618. 1936.
Patterson, J. T. “Supplementary Notes on Corner Tang Artifacts”, University of Texas Bulletin No. 3734, 1937.
Runkles, Frank A. Personal contact, 1972.
Russell, Virgil Y. “Indian Artifacts”, p. 80, 1953.