b'OLD WEST LEGENDSThe Weapons of IndiansBy Dakota LivesayModern Firearmsfavorite woods. The wood is carefully seasoned by Have Displaced thebeing hung, sometimes for months, just out of reach of the flames of the tepee fire. The bow is four feet Bow and Arrow. The Tomahawklong and an inch thick in the middle. A warrior, and War Club Are Now Almostwith a sharp knife and file, will take a week to Obsolete Weapons. make a bow.T he Indian of today hasThe Crows make bows of elk horn, each bow discarded his primitiverequiring four pieces, nicely fitted to each weapons of war and adoptedother and spliced and wrapped the white mans. An Indian cantogether. When ornamented, reload an empty rifle or revolvercarved, and painted, these shell as well as a white man. Howbows are beautiful. It takes he does it is a mystery, for thean Indian about three white man needs a special set ofmonths to make one.tools for the purpose, and theBefore they came Indian has none that are notmuch in contact with improvised. The fact remains,the whites the Indians frequently used however, and was so well knownpoisoned arrowheads. The Shoshones to General Miles that, whenmade their poison of ants, dried and campaigning after Geronimopowdered, and mixed with the spleen in 1886, he published an orderof some animal. The mixture was then directing that soldiers should turnplaced in the sun and allowed to decay. over to their officers all emptyThe result was such a deadly poison that shells so that they might not beif the arrow ever broke a persons skin it left on the ground and utilized bywas sure to produce death.the Apaches.The bow was used in war when aArrows are made very carefully because quiet attack is needed, and quitea bowmans success is depended on generally in hunting, for theretheir construction. it answers as well and is moreThree or four are economical. The degree of skillthe limit of a days attained by the Indian in archery iswork, even when the truly astonishing, but it is the resultrough material is at hand. The arrow shafts are of long and constant practice. The Indiancut in the fall, when the sap is not running, and boys first lesson is to shoot with a smallare tied up in bundles, so they will not warp. They bow and blunt arrow. Finally, he receivesare then hung up in the tepee, in a similar manner the strong bow, and with it fits himselfto the bow wood. The shaft is usually channeled, for war. or grooved, to allow the flow of blood from the wound. Arrows pertaining to different tribes The latter are powerful weapons.may be distinguished by the expert after One that an Indian would, with theexamination of the feathering, painting, or greatest of ease, draw to the arrowscarving. Indeed, it is said that individuals head, could scarcely be bent fourof the same tribe can tell each others inches by a white man. They willarrows in the same way.send an arrow five hundred yardsThe tomahawk and war club are and put it through a board an inchhardly used at all. Their place has thick. On one occasion a mansbeen taken by the knife, one or skull was found transfixed to amore being always carried by an tree by an arrow, which had goneIndian in a sheath attached to completely through the boneshis belt. Used principally for and embedded itself so deeply inskinning game, these knives the wood as to sustain the weightare nevertheless, at close of the head. He had probablyquarters, deadly weapons of been tied up to a tree and shot. attack or defense. They are The Sioux make the best bows.also used for scalping. Cedar and hickory are their 32 November 2021'