HAMMERSTONE

ca. 1890

1987.76.01

Montana's First Peoples were hunter-gatherers whose complex cultures included a division of labor based on gender. While men procured meat by hunting game, women were responsible for all other aspects of feeding their families. They gathered roots, plants, and berries when they were in season, then preserved them for use throughout the winter. One of the primary ways of doing this was by making pemmican-a mixture of dried meat, animal fat, and berries, either service berries, huckleberries, or chokecherries. Pemmican was a power-packed food that lasted easily through the scarce winter months, staying edible anywhere from six months to five years. Women used mauls like this one to process the pemmican. Although this "berry pounder" made of a granite cobble hafted to a willow handle with hide and sinew-was probably made about 1890, the style and materials used date back to prehistoric times. The hide-willow handle made it flexible and easy to use for pounding the berries and meat.

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