otherDecember 4, 2017
Emmett 'Butch' Bounds proves Indian artifacts still can be found in area
Emmett "Butch" Bounds has an interesting array of items in his Cape Girardeau home with unexpected stories to match. "See this cannonball right here?" Bounds says, lifting a 20-pound ball of metal, the biggest of three. "I got this cannonball from a local couple here in town for a pack of cigarettes."...
Emmett "Butch" Bounds has an interesting array of items in his Cape Girardeau home with unexpected stories to match.
"See this cannonball right here?" Bounds says, lifting a 20-pound ball of metal, the biggest of three. "I got this cannonball from a local couple here in town for a pack of cigarettes."
It sits on a top of a cabinet, near a bone from maybe a bison or cow. He's not sure.
He goes into a back room and returns with a Samurai sword he's been told is 500 to 600 years old. He holds it straight out in front of him, the glimmering blade, parallel to the floor, bears a couple noticeable nicks he attributes to his mother-in-law chopping wood. That's one possible explanation. However, he notes it's a "two paper-cut sword," documented to have been used to execute at least two men.
He also has several framed pictures of Japanese women in ornate dress, one whom he says has a distinct likeness to his deceased wife, Harumi, pictured in one of the three curio cabinets in his living room. He met and married her overseas during his 20 years of service in the U.S. Marines.
Her death in June 2014 led him to take up a hobby of collecting Native American artifacts, which fill the other curio cabinets and more.
He took up collecting Native American artifacts in earnest about 15 months ago, joining his brother, a veteran of the hobby, and the two have amassed quite a collection.
Through his own finds, purchases and trades, Bounds has collected approximately 1,100 artifacts, ranging from tomahawks to bowls to spearheads, but mostly arrowheads.
Some are richly displayed in cases, like an 8 3/4-inch beige spearhead he says he purchased from a "kid down in Southeast Missouri" and is 2,000 years old, a weapon from one of the Woodland tribes.
"It looks like it's machine-made," Bounds says, admiring the skill of the maker.
Another case contains a maroon spearhead about 5 inches in length, exemplifying the unique beauty of the pieces. It was a personal find on one of his scavenger hunts he takes with his brother in Southeast Missouri.
They'll scour farm fields, dry creek beds and sand bars in search of the past.
"He knows a lot of farmers," Bounds says about his brother, who he says has more than 44,000 pieces. "We seek permission. We do not go on anybody's land without permission. Some say 'Yes,' and some say 'No.'"
They avoid federal and state lands, as well as burial mounds, all illegal places to hunt and remove artifacts.
Bounds does note, however, thousands of mounds have been leveled, which is now illegal, over the centuries for farmland.
"The best time to hunt points is the fall and springtime, because the frost, that stuff will rise up out of the ground," Bounds says.
The arrowhead sizes vary, with some quite small -- what Bounds terms as "bird points." Many arrowheads are made of agate and flint, hard rock he says Indians heated by fire and cooled with water before chipping with a hard tool, such as a deer antler.
He marvels at the workmanship.
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"When you find a good one, it feels real good, especially these small bird ones, because I don't know how in the world they made them," Bounds says.
He says many people are surprised arrowheads can still be found so readily, but he can find them virtually anywhere. He claims to have found one in a neighbor's driveway -- "just laying there."
In March, he took a trip south of Wyatt, Missouri.
"I hopped out of my car and walked about 10 foot, and there were two of them laying right there," Bounds says.
When told he's got a knack for finding arrowheads, he says, "My brother's the one that's got the knack."
He adds, "My brother told me he found 40 one time in 10 minutes."
Bounds says they often walk through fields and find them laying in the open. He'll go arrowhead hunting about twice a week, finding about 10 to 15 total.
"You'd be surprised what you can find in creek beds," he says.
While intact pieces are prizes, Bounds also keeps broken ones, which he'll he keep in jars around his house like candy. He says many people will discard them, but he says they can be used in a decorative fashion, such as framework around Indian artwork.
He also treats them like candy, sharing his finds with others.
"Half of Trinity Lutheran Church has arrowheads because I pass them out like dimes," Bounds says with a chuckle.
He said he's had several Boy Scout groups come over to his home, and he's taken part of his collections to schools.
"My preacher says, 'You ought to start a museum,'" Bounds says.
It is his mindset.
"The way I see it, what I'm doing is preserving history," Bound says.
A widower with three cats, he's the curator of his finds, whatever that might be. The excursions also turn up random items like old soda bottles and horse shoes. He has a musket-ball maker, forged with "1704" on the handle, found on his brother's farm.
"Sometimes we find some, sometimes we don't," Bounds says. "Sometimes we find marbles."
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