Point Revenge Recent Indian Arrow Reproduction

This is an arrow that I made a few years ago for the Gateway to Labrador Visitor Centre.  I knapped a Point Revenge style corner-notched point for the arrowhead and used Innu arrows in The Rooms Ethnographic Collection as references for the shaft, fletching, and binding.  Even though the Recent Indian points from Labrador are pretty much identical to contemporaneous points from the Island portion of the Province, the arrows made by the Beothuk and the historic Innu seem to have been quite different.  The Innu arrows I've seen are fletched with three feathers (the Beothuk used two), they are several inches shorter than the yard long Beothuk arrows, are not covered in red ochre and use pitch and sinew as a binding.  In almost every instance the things that make the arrows different would not be preserved in the archaeological record.

3 feathers, tied at the ends only and not glued down

Stone point hafted with pitch and sinew

The finished arrow on display in Labrador

Photo Credits: Tim Rast