Native American Arrows

Berkley · 27th June 2014, 12:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spiral

I can do a post about English Mesolithic, Neolithic & bronze age arrow heads, mostly from my own personal finds , dating back to up to 8000 years ago .

Guess that should be a separate thread.

It sounds like a fascinating topic - hope you will start the thread (with lots of pics).
Berk

LJ · 27th June 2014, 10:43 PM

I guess the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology volumes published in the late 1800s and early 1900s might be worth a look, but there was also a monograph on North American Bows Arrows and Quivers by O.T. Mason published in 1893 in the "Smithsonian Reports" (pages 631-679).

I also remember seeing a book by Allely & Hamm published 1999 "Encyclopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows & Quivers. Vol.1 Northeast, Southeast and Midwest", and on checking the Web I see they also issued a second volume.

Just also checked Christian Feest's summary of North American artefacts in european Collections pre-1750 (Archiv fur Volkerkunde 46:61-109) and this confirmed something I suspected - that arrows are VERY rare in early collections. Perhaps they were so commonly seen that nobody thought it worth taking them home. Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got til it's gone.

Berkley · 28th June 2014, 02:00 AM

Thank you very much for the additional references. The work by Mason is available online: LINK

aiontay · 30th June 2014, 12:15 AM

A couple of points (no pun intended). First while there might have been tribal styles, Native Americans were a pretty cosmopolitan bunch and there was plenty of interaction/trade/exchange between tribes. Adam Walker, one of the best Chickasaw bow/ballstick makers of the late 20th century sold most of his bows and ballsticks to traditional Creek and Seminoles, not Chickasaws. Also, as they say, any idiot can make a bow but arrows are a whole other matter. I suspect a Kiowa back in the 1850's would likely buy arrows from say a Cheyenne maker rather than from a Kiowa, or Comanche if the maker made the best arrows and wasn't too expensive. So while the arrow may have been Cheyenne, I'm not sure the shooter necessarily had to be.

Second, as for finding proper draw length, most traditional shooting I've seen is more instinctive point, where you basically "punch" at the target rather than pulling back on the string. Usually the arrow notch is held in the fingers in a pinch grip rather than the fingers on the string. When the bow is punched out the arrow gets pulled out of the fingers more than it is released, so there really isn't an anchor point you pull back to. If you'll notice on several of the arrows the notches flair out our are slightly bulbous. That is to facilitate a pinch grip on the arrow, rather than pulling back on the string.

Jim McDougall · 23rd March 2019, 05:54 AM

Well even all these years later, I am still curious on just how one could identify the arrows as from a particular tribe. I had thought it was colored bands painted in the shaft, but that seems to have been peculiar to hunting arrows.

Was it the arrowheads themselves, or the shaft markings(?) or the style of the feathers?

kronckew · 23rd March 2019, 11:23 AM

Stone points as someone mentioned, can be made quite quickly by an experienced knapper. They are much sharper than mere iron/steel points. Eye surgeons frequently use a small knapped stone scalpel blade for microsurgery. they are however very brittle, and once loosed into prey are rarely reusable w/o rework or replacement. Knappers make them out of glass from old bottles and other modern glass sources even today - you can find them on a well known online auction site.

I am surprised the US Army did not issue body armour, mail, or brigantines, to aid in their expensively trained and maintained troopers and Officers from becoming pincushions.

Jim McDougall · 24th March 2019, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kronckew

Stone points as someone mentioned, can be made quite quickly by an experienced knapper. They are much sharper than mere iron/steel points. Eye surgeons frequently use a small knapped stone scalpel blade for microsurgery. they are however very brittle, and once loosed into prey are rarely reusable w/o rework or replacement. Knappers make them out of glass from old bottles and other modern glass sources even today - you can find them on a well known online auction site.

I am surprised the US Army did not issue body armour, mail, or brigantines, to aid in their expensively trained and maintained troopers and Officers from becoming pincushions.

Thank you for responding Wayne! Interesting notes on the knapping situation, and it does seem there were variations in the style of fashioning these arrowheads, so I imagine there was a degree of identification from these.

Good observation on the lack of arrow protection provided for soldiers in the times in the 19th c. in so called 'Indian wars'. It seems odd as even during Spanish colonial times, the value of 'leather armor' (cuera) against the deadly arrows was well known. It would seem that this, as well as the 'regulation' on firearms gave American Indian warriors the upper hand, just as at the Little Big Horn. Military regulation does not seem to have recognized actual warfare circumstances as was profoundly revealed.

Still curious on the painted bands on the shafts, were they 'tribal'? or individual?....and were these relegated only to hunting and not warfare?

28th June 2014, 02:00 AM	#3
Berkley Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Austin, Texas USA Posts: 257	Thank you very much for the additional references. The work by Mason is available online: LINK Attached Images Last edited by Berkley; 28th June 2014 at 05:14 AM.

27th June 2014, 10:43 PM	#2
LJ Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 93	I guess the Smithsonian Bureau of Ethnology volumes published in the late 1800s and early 1900s might be worth a look, but there was also a monograph on North American Bows Arrows and Quivers by O.T. Mason published in 1893 in the "Smithsonian Reports" (pages 631-679). I also remember seeing a book by Allely & Hamm published 1999 "Encyclopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows & Quivers. Vol.1 Northeast, Southeast and Midwest", and on checking the Web I see they also issued a second volume. Just also checked Christian Feest's summary of North American artefacts in european Collections pre-1750 (Archiv fur Volkerkunde 46:61-109) and this confirmed something I suspected - that arrows are VERY rare in early collections. Perhaps they were so commonly seen that nobody thought it worth taking them home. Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got til it's gone.

30th June 2014, 12:15 AM	#4
aiontay Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 88	A couple of points (no pun intended). First while there might have been tribal styles, Native Americans were a pretty cosmopolitan bunch and there was plenty of interaction/trade/exchange between tribes. Adam Walker, one of the best Chickasaw bow/ballstick makers of the late 20th century sold most of his bows and ballsticks to traditional Creek and Seminoles, not Chickasaws. Also, as they say, any idiot can make a bow but arrows are a whole other matter. I suspect a Kiowa back in the 1850's would likely buy arrows from say a Cheyenne maker rather than from a Kiowa, or Comanche if the maker made the best arrows and wasn't too expensive. So while the arrow may have been Cheyenne, I'm not sure the shooter necessarily had to be. Second, as for finding proper draw length, most traditional shooting I've seen is more instinctive point, where you basically "punch" at the target rather than pulling back on the string. Usually the arrow notch is held in the fingers in a pinch grip rather than the fingers on the string. When the bow is punched out the arrow gets pulled out of the fingers more than it is released, so there really isn't an anchor point you pull back to. If you'll notice on several of the arrows the notches flair out our are slightly bulbous. That is to facilitate a pinch grip on the arrow, rather than pulling back on the string.

23rd March 2019, 05:54 AM	#5
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,281	Well even all these years later, I am still curious on just how one could identify the arrows as from a particular tribe. I had thought it was colored bands painted in the shaft, but that seems to have been peculiar to hunting arrows. Was it the arrowheads themselves, or the shaft markings(?) or the style of the feathers?

23rd March 2019, 11:23 AM	#6
kronckew Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Room 101, Glos. UK Posts: 4,224	Stone points as someone mentioned, can be made quite quickly by an experienced knapper. They are much sharper than mere iron/steel points. Eye surgeons frequently use a small knapped stone scalpel blade for microsurgery. they are however very brittle, and once loosed into prey are rarely reusable w/o rework or replacement. Knappers make them out of glass from old bottles and other modern glass sources even today - you can find them on a well known online auction site. I am surprised the US Army did not issue body armour, mail, or brigantines, to aid in their expensively trained and maintained troopers and Officers from becoming pincushions.