The resources of the prehistoric people of the Yakima Valley, as indicated by the specimens found in the graves and about the village sites, were chiefly of stone, copper, shell, bone, antler, horn, feathers, skin, tule stalks, birch bark and wood. They employed extensively various kinds of stone for making a variety of objects. Obsidian,[26] glassy basalt or trap, petrified wood, agate, chalcedonic quartz with opaline intrusions, chert and jasper were used for chipping into various kinds of points, such as those used for arrows, spears, knives, drills and scrapers. According to Spinden,[27] obsidian was used in the Nez Perce region to the east where it was obtained from the John Day River and in the mountains to the east, possibly in the vicinity of the Yellowstone National Park. The people of the Yakima Valley may have secured it from the Nez Perce. As on the coast, objects made of glassy basalt were rare here, although it will be remembered that they were the most common among chipped objects in the Thompson River region.[28] Mr. James Teit believes that glassy basalt is scarce in the Yakima region and that this is the reason why the prehistoric people there did not use it extensively. Some agate, chalcedony and similar materials were used in the Thompson River region, but while there is a great quantity of the raw material of these substances there, the Indians say that the black basalt was easier to work and quite as effective when finished. Several small quarries of float quartz had been excavated and broken up to be flaked at adjacent work shops, p. 16. River pebbles were made into net sinkers, pestles, mortars, hammerstones, scrapers, clubs, slave killers, sculptures, and similar objects, and were also used for covering some of the graves in the knolls. Serpentine was used for celts and clubs; lava for sculptures. Slate was used for ornamental or ceremonial tablets steatite for ornaments and pipes, though rarely for pestles and other objects; and impure limestone for pipes. Fragments of basaltic rock were used for covering graves in the rock-slides and in some of the knolls. Places on the basaltic columns and cliffs served as backgrounds upon which pictures were made, some being pecked,[29] others painted.[30] No objects made of mica or nephrite were found. Siliceous sandstone was made into pestles, pipes and smoothers for arrow-shafts, but the last were rare. Copper clay, white earth and red ochre were not found, but red and white paint were seen on the basaltic cliffs and Mrs. Lynch reports blue paint from a grave near Fort Simcoe (p. 117).

Copper was used for beads, pendants and bracelets. While all of this copper may have been obtained by barter from the whites, yet some of it may have been native. Copper, according to Spinden, was probably not known to the Nez Perce before the articles of civilization had reached that region, but he states that large quantities of copper have been taken from graves and that the edges of some of the specimens are uneven, such as would be more likely to result from beating out a nugget than from working a piece of cut sheet copper.[31] The glass beads, iron bracelets,[32] and bangles,[33] the brass rolled beads,[34] brass pendant[35] and the white metal inlay,[36] which we found, all came from trade with the white race during recent times and do not belong to the old culture.

Shells of the fresh water unio, in a bed five or six feet in diameter and two or three inches thick, at the Priest Rapids village site and described on p. 34 indicate that this animal had been used for food. Shells of the little salt water clam (Pectunculus 202-8388, Fig. 88), haliotis (202-8234b, 8252, 8255, 8386, Figs. 89-92), dentalium (202-8178, 8156, 8163, 8173, 8177-9, 8184, 8186-89, 8192-3, 8233, 8241, 8253, 8389, Figs. 74, 117, and 118) olivella (202-8393, Fig. 87), and oyster (202-8170, Fig. 94) which were made into various ornaments must have been obtained from the coast. No shells of Pecten caurinus were found.

Deer bones were seen in great numbers in the earth of a village site at the head of Priest Rapids where they probably are the remains of cooking. Animal bones were made into points for arrows or harpoon barbs, awls and tubes that were probably used in gambling. Fish bones (202-8387) found in the village sites suggest that fish were used for food. No bones of the whale were found.

Antler was used for wedges, combs and as material upon which to carve. Horns of the Rocky Mountain sheep were used for digging-stick handles. Mountain sheep horns were secured by the Nez Perce who lived to the east of the Yakima region, and were traded with Indians westward as far as the Lower Columbia.[37] No objects made of teeth were found although a piece of a beaver tooth (202-8189) was seen in grave No. 21, and Mrs. Lynch reports elk teeth from a grave near Fort Simcoe (p. 119). Pieces of thong, skin, fur, and feathers of the woodpecker, all of which were probably used as articles of wearing apparel, were found in the graves preserved by the action of copper salts or the dryness of the climate.

Wood was used as the hearth of a fire drill[38] and for a bow, a fragment of which is shown in Fig. 114. Sticks which had not decayed in this dry climate, marked some of the graves in the rock-slides (p. 140). Charcoal was also found in the graves and village sites. A fragment of birch bark, tightly rolled (202-8392) was found in a grave; roots were woven into baskets;[39] rushes were stitched and woven into mats.[40]