Discovery of ancestry leads to life long hobby

Cathlamet resident Leroy Beard doesn’t just collect Native American items; he creates them. From peace pipes to tomahawks, he does it all.

Born in Oregon in 1929, Beard has been in Wahkiakum County since 1930. His grandmother, being half Cherokee Indian, started his fascination in the items. One day 45 years ago, he said he got the urge to chip arrowheads. “It came naturally.” Nobody taught him how to do it.

With practice, he got better every day. Beard, 79, uses a volcanic glass called obsidian in his crafts which he finds in Burns, Oregon. “Flint and agate are too hard,” he said. They must be heat treated, which is quite a process.

People will bring him the antlers from deer and elk after they have hunted the animal. A gentleman who was moving brought Beard around 10 sets of antlers to use. “He’s moving and he doesn’t have a place to put them.” Beard will use the antlers to carve bears and eagles. “That’s about all I carve,” he said.

Making a knife or a blade will take Beard about two and a half hours. The finished product after decorating will take about three hours. He said he will make two or three a day, as long as he isn’t rushed. “If you (rush), you break them!”

Beard says he sells his crafts. He will travel all around the state and into Oregon. “We will take a trip out on a Sunday, sell a knife someplace and go get a nice meal. That’s the way to work it!” Beard sells a lot of his crafts at the Astoria Sunday Market or various galleries in eastern Washington.

One day while in Naches, Beard stopped to get some fruit. He asked the stand owner if he bought Native American crafts. He sold everything he had with him. “I made a killing that day!” Beard said with a laugh.

The near life long hobby isn’t an expensive one. “Most of the stuff I get for almost nothing.” By trading crafts for more materials, he said he will trade knives for horns or whatever he can get.

There was no particular reason for Beard to get involved in the hobby of creating the artifacts, it just happened. “I just went out there and started doing it; like something pushed me into it.”

Beard gets a lot of enjoyment out of creating his items. “It keeps me out of trouble, and gives me a few extra spending dollars.”

Crafting is a lost art, Beard said. There aren’t a lot of people who do it anymore. “I taught Henry Blankenship how to do it. I don’t know anybody else around here at all that does that kind of work.”

From the eyes of the birds to the leather and beadwork, Beard puts it all together to create his works of art.

Beard made the quiver and arrow for a bow made by a Moclips Indian. He said it is his intention to enter it in the fair this year.

In the past, he has won numerous first place ribbons, and said he only enters the Wahkiakum County Fair.

Beard’s crafts are made through a process called grinding over knapping. He will pre-form everything, than chip it out. “That way you don’t waste so much stone,” he said. The original way it was done, a rock would be broken and the spear would be chipped out.

Over the years, Beard has broken a lot of his obsidian. But while he said the Natives would have thrown it away, he will make a little arrow head, but only if the piece is big enough.

The handles to the knives Beard creates are carved out of cedar. He will connect the blade by using epoxy and sinew or imitation sinew, which is a film over the meat of a deer or elk. It was used to bind arrow heads, make beadwork, or it was used in sewing.

The Native Americans used everything after making a kill, Beard said. They would use the bones, the antlers, even the hooves would be used to make rattles.

Beard said he will continue to make the Native American items as long as he can. “As long as the hands will let me do it!” he laughed.