Native American Fish Hook, What Do You Think? with pics hopefully

[bigbird583]

     Hello Everyone.  Well I'm pretty new to these forums and to PA so hopefully I can get this post on here with pics this time.
     I got this fish hook from a buddy years ago in Colorado.  I lost it for a few years and then this fall we moved from Colorado to South Carolina and while I was unpacking I found it laying in the bottom of an old Budweiser mug.  It made my month to find it again.  So anyway after I lost it I kinda forgot were he had told me he found it.  I want to say it was New Mexico (since that is were he was from originally) but since it looks more like a snagging hook, NM doesn't seem to fit.  He travels all over the country for work so it's hard to guess were he found it.  The guy was like a hound dog when it came to finding Native American artifacts.  He had some cool stories of what he had seen and found and his whole family were archaeologists so I don't think it's a fake.
     So what do you think?  Can anybody tell me the Who? What? or Where?  I'd like to have some story to go with it when I show it to people.
     Thanks everyone and I look forward to hearing your opinions.
                                                                                                          Bird
     Oh and does anybody know a place in South Carolina that I could gather some knapping stone?  I live in Elloree SC and all I can find so far is sand.  Is this one of the area's that imported their stone?

[bigbird583]

     Success at last,  I was up late last night and couldn't get the pics to post on this.  Thanks to my wonderful wife I am celebrating a small victory over technology this morning.

[killir duck]

looks like a gut hook

[bigbird583]

     Yea, I guess some measurements would probably help.  This thing is a whopping 1 3/8" long top to bottom and exactly 1" wide at the point.  So I think it would have been a little small for a hand tool.  I think it had two notches at the top to tie to but one was broken off.  Although I'm not positive, the side that's missing the tab, doesn't quite look like it had something break off there.  It looks like small flakes had been removed in the spot where the tab should have been.  You'd think if it were tied off it would have two tabs, and a broken one would look different.  IDK but I'm hoping to learn more about this piece here.

[chief deer]

Looks like a rock.  I think they call them sex rocks. Mike Smyth

[Sparrow]

I think that I never found anything in South Carolina that was outa really great stone.I lived around Hartsville/Darlington and all the points I found were pretty grainy. Maybe up in the mountains of Greenville area,don't know. Down south in Georgia,there is Flint River flint. Nice ! I FOUND A COUPLE THAT WERE MADE FROM SOME PRETTY GRAINY PETRIFIED WOOD DOWN IN THE Pee Dee river swamp one time.  (Sorry,not much help)  '  Frank

[Stringman]

Well this is purely experience talking, nothing more. But if it were me, that little piece woulda been used to scrape bark off arrow shoots. John's videos in "arrows" demonstrates the technique I'm talkin about. The interesting thing is that after we used several flakes I started noticing wear patterns on them that resemble what you have on that flake. It could be just coincidence that it's shaped like a talon.

Scott

[killir duck]

that makes sense to me

[bigbird583]

     Hey guys, I'm glad to see some discussion cause I don't really know what to think about this thing and really want some experienced honest opinions.  Mike is probably right about it being a sex stone that's what I generally find the most of.  Got a nice collection going now cause my two little girls pick up every rock they see.
     You should've seen the time my youngest threw a fit in Walmart when she dumped out a pocket full of pea gravel she'd picked up someplace.  You'd a thought I was trying to take away her B-day when I said we couldn't pick every single one of them up.
     Hey Frank, I'm gonna have to get down to the Pee Dee.  I've always really liked the petrified wood.  I'm going to head down to the Georgia and check out the Savannah river.  I'm hoping to gather enough so I can trade somebody for a bow stave and some to let me play around with.
     And Duck and Scott, you know, I guess I never really gave it a second thought.  My buddy that gave it to me told me it was a fish hook and I never really second guessed it till now.  The only thing that I've ever Googled is fish hook and when I do I've never seen one made from stone.  The only resemblance is the angle that the point comes off at is kinda close. 
     You can't really see it to good in the pics but on the long back side there is a thin groove running all along the back.  Some places you can just barely catch your fingernail on it but it is there.  There isn't any wearing from someone holding it and working with it, that I can tell.
     Can anybody tell what kind of stone it is?  I'd like to maybe narrow it down on where it came from.  I'm thinking he found it in New Mexico, Colorado or Utah but I'm not sure.  He used to tell me all kinds of stories about the Ute Indian sites he had found but I think he was more into the earlier stuff, like the Freemont Indians around there.  He is an awesome old dude and you could tell that he missed the discovering of that stuff like it was when he was young and the western US wasn't has populated and private.  I always told him he should tell somebody about all these places but he wasn't up for that.  Said they would all be turned into a park or something.  I just wish I would've had more time when we were working together, so I could've gone out with him more.
     Anyway I'll quit rambling.  I really want to have the right story to go with this thing so keep it coming everybody.  Even if it is just another f****n rock. 
                                                                                                          Bird

[chief deer]

I got plenty of them too. Just did not think it was a hook. A lot of flakes were used for every day tasks and were disposable when finished.  I have butchered a lot of fish and game with flakes and yours would work well for a knife. So my guess is a neat little flake that could have been used for daily tasks. Mike