This Rabbit Stick was made by Willie Pink Cupeño, a Native American from the Agua Caliente Branch of the Luiseño Tribe located in the Temecula Valley of Southern California (near San Diego). I purchased this Rabbit Stick from an antique shop in Folsom, California in 1986. The rabbit stick originally sold for $30, but I paid considerably more for it as the third owner.

I was able to track down Willlie to see if he had others for sale. Wilie told me that the art of making rabbit sticks was no longer being practiced by tribal members, but he spent time studying Luiseño rabbit sticks in local museums and reading everything he could about indigenous techniques for construction. He then carefully made this rabbit stick out of Desert Oak using stone tools and by bending the end down with weights to get curvature as was did in the pre contact period. He finished the rabbit stick with local sources of ocher. Willie said that he did not want to make any more because it took considerable labor to make it, so I was lucky to get even one example of a California region rabbit stick.

Although it looks less sophisticated than Australian Aboriginal throw sticks in the photo, this rabbit stick is a rare example of throw stick technology produced by Native Americans in California. I wish there were more people like Willie who made an effort to document and preserve the technologies of indigenous peoples in North America.