The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-05-01
WEAPONS OF INDIANS.
Modern Fire arms Have Displaced
the Bow and Arrow.
The Tomahawk and War Club Arc Now
Almost Obsolete-Skill of tho Red
men In the Use of Their
Primitive Weapons.

l.
his primitive weapons of war and
adopted the white mans. An Indian
can reload an empty rife or revolver
shell as we'll as a white man. How he
does it is mystery, for the white man
needs a special set of tools for the pur-
pose, and the Indian has none that are
not improvised. The fact remains, how
ever, and was so well known to Gen.
Miles that, when campaigning after
Geronimo in 1886, he published an order
directing that soldiers should turn over
to their officers all empty shells, in
order that they might not be left on the
ground and utilized by the Apaches.
The bow is used in war when stealthy
attack is meditated, and quite gen.
orally in hunting, for there it answers
as well and is more economical. The
degree of skill attained by the Indian
in archery is truly astonishing, but it
is the result of long and constant prac-
tice. The Indian boys first lesson is to
shoot with small bow and blunt ar
row. Finally he receives the strong
bow, and with it fits himself for war.
These latter are powerful weapons.
One that an Indian would, with the
greatest ease, draw to the arrows head,
could scarcely be bent four inches by a
white man. They will send an arrow
five hundred yards, and put it through
a board an inch thick.
On one occasion a mans skull was
found transfxed to tree by an arrow,
which had gone completely through
the bones and imbedded itself so deeply
in the wood as to sustain the weight OF
the head. He had probably been tied
up to tree and shot.
The Sioux make the best bows. Cedar
and hickory are favorite woods. The
wood is carefully seasoned by being
hung. sometimes for months, just out
of reach of the flames of the tepee fire.
The bow is four feet long and an inch
thick in the middle. A warrior, with q
sharp knife and file, will take week
TO make a bow, which will sell for
about three dollars in trade.
The crows make bows OF elk horn,
each bow requiring four pieces, nicely
fitted to each other and spliced and
wrapped together. When ornamented,
carved and painted, these bows are
beautiful, and readily sell for twenty
Ave or fifty dollars. 1t takes an In
dian about three months to make one
Before they came much in contact
with the whites the Indians frequently
used poisoned arrowheads. The Sho-
shones made their poison of ants, dried
and powdered, and mixed with the
snleen of some animal. The mixture
was then placed in the sun and allowed
to decay. The result was such deadly
poison that if the arrow ever broke
persons skin it was sure to produce
death.
arrows are made very carefully, for
upon their construction depends the
bowman's success. Three or four are the
limit of a days work, even when the
rough material is at hand. The branches
from which they are made are cut In
the fall. when the sap is not running,
and are tied up in bundles, so they will
not warp. They are then hung up IN
the tepee, in q similar manner to the
how wood. The shaft is usually chan
neled, or grooved, so as to allow the
flow of blood from the wound. Arrows
pertaining to different tribes may be
distinguished by the expert after ex-
animation of the feathering, painting
or carving. Indeed, it is said that IN
dividuals of the same tribe can tell each
others arrows in the same way.
The tonahawk and war club are
hardly used at all. Their place has
been taken by the knife, one or more
being always carried by wild Indian
in a sheath attached to his belt. USED
principally for skinning game these
i,pives are nevertheless, at close quar-
ters, deadly weapons of attack or de-
tense. They are also used for scalping.