God I really don't like how influencers present history. "It's wild that people think Native Americans didn't have metal tools when these [old copper culture tools from the NA Archaic period] exist". The reason why people think that it's that by and large that statement holds true. In a majority of cases smelting was not used by Native American populations, and the metal jewelry and tools we find are worked cold from high purity and very malleable metals found as such in workable quantities. And because native, pure copper is a poor material to make tools and weapons, and because technology is not linear, stone was retained as the material of choice in its stead.
The existence of cold work native copper tools and weapons in one region of Neolithic North America does not make people stupid for thinking Native American pre-Colombus did not use metal tools, that was still largely the case. What needs to be addressed is the idea that this would somehow make their culture inferior, and that working with copper would fix that. It's a very eurocentric point of view.
Okay addendum. The point I'm making is that North American Natives 100% knew how to make that shit, but that copper isn't the level up from stone on your technological skill tree. That a pectoral made of teeth is better than a thin sheet of copper, that an arrow made of flint or glass cuts better than one made of copper, and that most tools made out of copper can only be used for low impact work because it's really not much better than gold when it comes to durability. So if you're gonna point at the Old Copper Culture, it should be to make the point that not using metal as the main material for your weapons and tools was a conscious choice and not a sign of backwardness; thinking that it's proof that stone tools being used by North American Natives is around the 16th century is just a stereotype is wrong, and it's shitting on stone tools for no good reason.
