Cecil and Emory Coons (Burns) are father and son arrowhead chippers of obsidian they collect from the hills around their home. They use and teach traditional techniques for chipping a variety of arrowhead styles. The family home, totally obscured behind piles of gathered obsidian to be sold outright to collectors or to be used in reproduction arrowheads and spears, shows the Coons’ unbridled passion for the pursuit. Cecil refers to his son as “probably the finest spear-point maker in the world.”
Bio
Cecil Coons hunted arrowheads with his father back in Nebraska. Since that time, Cecil’s interest has never waned, and his skill at finding arrowheads has only grown. Cecil enjoys telling the story of his visit to a University of Oregon field archeology site. Within 45 minutes of his arrival, he had unearthed the top half of a Clovis point dating back 12,000 to 14,000 years. Like most folk traditions, Cecil learned his skills face-to-face and from a line of other practitioners. His father learned to chip from a friend who in turn learned the technique from an Native American who worked on the railroad. Cecil began mastering the technique using a deer horn buffered with a cut of leather at the age of nine. Today, Cecil is known by many in the trade as the “Obsidian King,” - always on the hunt for that one rare find. Cecil’s son, Emory, began chipping arrowheads when he was five. He is “probably the finest spear-point maker in the world,” Cecil observed. Emory’s largest chipped blade measures 41.25 inches in length, just shy of the world’s record. Cecil and Emory travel extensively throughout the Northwest and Canada, teaching others how to chip arrowheads. Their knowledge is so highly respected, they spent six years traveling to the Umatilla Indian Reservation outside of Pendleton, Oregon consulting with the Confederated Tribes to integrate arrowhead making back into their culture.
