Obsidian Projectile Point

3D Model

This Obsidian Projectile Point was a multi-purpose tool used by the Ohlone for various activities such as hunting. Due to the trading patterns and limited geological availability of obsidian, this artifact’s material could’ve journeyed from a neighboring Tribe or been reconstructed from another obsidian object from precolonial times. Furthermore, many Indigenous communities used projectile points to “repudiate the values of colonialism in their daily lives” by continuing dynamic traditions of projectile point creation (Panich et al, 1). Such objects, like the one displayed here, continued to be manufactured at the Mission Santa Clara as a form of persistence and resistance by the Muwekma Ohlone people.