Use of the Sword by American Indian Tribes

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by David

Though it is clear that examples of cold worked meteorite do exist i believe it is equally clear that many of these Tlingit daggers that are dated to the mid and late 18th century are indeed indigenously FORGED weapons. Again, where how they developed these forging kills remains unknown, but there are daggers that were "collected" in the late 18th century by Europeans that obviously were not European forgings. By the 19th century Tlingit forging skills increased greatly, producing large and elaborately fullered daggers. So while there may not be much evidence of indigenous smelting i believe there is plenty of evidence of indigenous forging.

Thank you Fernando......not really a digression but key perspective by analogy of how native peoples often would adopt outside influences into their own culture, and often revere them as seen here.
It seems well known that the African tribal groups typically had varying levels of metal working skills, but West Africa seems to have used more of the sift, yellow metals. However there were certainly smiths fully capable of working iron, and interesting to see how they carefully duplicated these Portuguese swords and were seen as holding resounding power.

The swordsmanship of the Portuguese explorers was probably seen as their ability to harness the power and magic of the sword. This is a common perception with native peoples as weapons foreign to them were seen in the sense of magic, much as imbued in their own weapons. In the cases of swords I think this was recognized as a formidable force, and only the most powerful in a native tribe could hold such a weapon. In these cases I think that these were a kind of 'bearing' weapon as often seen in tribal cultures in Africa in rituals, and various ceremonies or events.

With the American Indian tribes, it was a dual reaction. While the 'long knives' were seen representing the power of the warrior in cases of weapons captured from the Blue Coats, they were often seen as imbued with similar kinds of power as used by chiefs. In these instances the sword held a kind of metaphysical power that symbolized that of the chief. This was for example as in the case of a visitor to the tribe who was to be protected, the chiefs sword was placed near the entrance, in effect....a warning, anyone who tries to breach this sanctity will face the wrath of the chief (as his sword declares)..

[fernando]

Drawings of remnants of personalities buried in tombs #4, #5 and #12 with their swords, in Kindoki, Mbanza Nsundi, Low Congo,
And a portrait of Mfutila, King of the Congo Kingdom, who succeeded his father in 1892.


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