Anishinaabek Neighbors: Steve Feringa

Sep. 24—TRAVERSE CITY — To the untrained eye, the edges of arrowheads may seem similar, but at a closer look, there's a deeper story of how they were made, said Steve Feringa.

The deliberate removal of thin layers in stone, such as flint, chert, and obsidian made into points, and tools, like arrowheads is known as the art of knapping or flint knapping — an art Feringa has shared with his community for more than a decade.

Feringa, a citizen of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa (Odawa) and Chippewa (Ojibwe) Indians, said good arrowheads are not found but are formed through a meticulous process.

It's all about precision and control over the fracture of a stone to precisely chip and shape into a usable tool through a series of pressure flaking, and indirect percussion. The edge needs to be prepared and hit at just the right angle, Feringa said.

"You need to know the stone well, because they all fracture differently," said Feringa.

Feringa has been knapping stone, and other materials such as porcelain for 25 years. He offers his knowledge and mentorship in the area to local elementary schools, and lessons to the GTB community.

Last weekend, Feringa led two workshops on the reservation lands of GTB, along with dozens of members from the Michigan Flintknappers Association — a group dedicated to the study and sharing of flintknapping history and replication — for the annual knap-in.

Members get together a few times a year to grow their personal specialities among one another and offer assistance to those who want to learn more about the art, with hands-on guidance.

The first step in flint knapping is percussion flaking, which is the hammering of the large rock with a piece of elk or deer antler, or a heavy copper bopper billet to remove a small piece of the rock from a larger rock.

Once a satisfactory piece of the rock has been cleaved, the removal of unwanted rock in order to create the desired shape of an arrowhead, ax, or spearhead is known as "pressure flaking."

The length and width of pressure flaking tools of antler or copper would resemble an average-sized screwdriver and is done by pressing against a rock to remove unwanted material.

The process demands a lot of patience, and room for forgiveness, Feringa said.

"Like many things in life, it takes a lot of practice."

Interestingly the technique of flint knapping is universal, said Feringa.

"it's one thing that we all have in common, something that all of our ancestors in cultures were doing at some point all across the world."

For thousands of years, Indigenous Peoples of North America relied on stone arrowheads and project points as their weapons of choice for warfare and hunting.

The stone tools represent the pinnacle of advancement in the craftsmanship of arrowheads and point tools.

The weapons made were incredibly effective, which allowed our ancestors to take down big predators like bears and wild cats, Feringa said.

"It was a matter of life or death and so these tools became an extension of them."

Using modern tools and traditional — like deer and moose antlers — Feringa can turn a hand-sized piece of stone into a knife in a matter of hours,

But what Feringa makes look easy took him hundreds of hours to learn.

As a child, Feringa's favorite thing to do was to go into the woods, and make his own bow and arrows.

"I grew up with a fascination with tool building and skills," he said.

His grandparents died when his mother was little, "so our family lost a whole generation of knowledge," Feringa said.

Feringa's aunts and uncles attempted to fill in the gap with the traditions they could share, but Feriga said he never understood how important the lessons were until he began to reconnect with his culture as a young adult.

"I was completely devoid of knowledge around our traditional ways to build tools and weapons, so I sought it out," he said.

In the early '90s, he connected with the Michigan Flintknappers Association, where a lot of "trial and error" helped Feringa master his skill.

He now specializes in hunting arrows and points, using traditional Anishinaabek materials like Bayport chert and Norwood chert, and non-traditional.

Feringa said that after his retirement, he hopes to offer more classes on Anishinaabek tools, such as staves, which is wood split to make arrows for bows.

"It's important to pass this down, especially for our newer generations to be involved in the art," he said.