Gifts from the Thunder Beings: Indigenous Archery and European Firearms in the Northern Plains and Central Subarctic, 1670-1870

6. Injuries Caused by Arrows and Firearms

6 Injuries Caused by Arrows and Firearms The seemingly “primitive” bow and arrow could cause remarkably severe injuries. There are numerous reports of Plains Indian arrows passing entirely through an adult bison or through a person.1 For example, on a bison hunt in the late nineteenth century the Blackfoot Stiimiksato’si was observed to have shot an arrow through a buffalo so that it went out the other side.2 Among the Mandan and Hidatsa, but also among the Omushkego-Cree, bows intended for combat were often made with a significantly higher draw weight than those intended for hunting. Such bows propelled arrows with great speed and force.3 However, many people survived substantial injuries caused by arrows . Testimony by Aboriginal people and also from U.S. military medical personnel in the “Indian Wars” shows that many arrow wounds were not instantly lethal. Injuries to the spinal cord or heart, or direct hits to the main arteries, were often immediately fatal. But even arrow points that pierced a person’s skull and brain did not have immediate “stopping power” in every case. Rather, the infections and internal blood clotting that they caused could eventually lead to death. Even hits to the lungs, although mostly lethal, would not always instantly disable. If the arrowhead was metal and could be removed from the wound, the chances of complete healing and recovery were often good.4 Stone points were more likely to cause an infection due to minute particles breaking off the arrowhead and remaining in the wound. The most impressive feature of early firearms in regard to combat Injuries 155 value was the extreme damage that a musket ball could cause, resulting in almost instant death. This applied especially to earlier muzzleloading firearms, such as seventeenth-century muskets with their lower muzzle velocities. The relatively slow but large bullets fired from these weapons transferred enormous shocking power to the target, especially at close range.5 While arrow hits on vital organs other than the spinal cord or the heart were likely deadly, they would not instantly disable a human opponent or a large animal. On the other hand, a hit in the torso with a musket ball, especially when the firearm was loaded with the proper amount of powder charge and fired at short range, would almost certainly have been lethal and would instantly have disabled its victim.6 An experimental shooting trial conducted in the 1980s at the state armory in Graz, Austria, may illustrate the terrifying effect that these weapons had on humans at close range. This trial was conducted with a musket of the Montecuccolli type, a smoothbore, muzzle-loading weapon from 1686. A lead ball of 17.5 millimeter caliber (0.689 inches), weighing 30.93 grams (477.3 grains), fired from this weapon reached a muzzle velocity of 494 meters per second (1,621 feet per second) and an initial kinetic energy of 377.4 Joules. At a distance of 30 meters (ca. 33 yards), after piercing a steel sheet 4 millimeters thick (0.1575 inches ), the projectile entered a further 183 millimeters (ca. 7.2 inches) into dry pinewood. To measure the potential tissue damage caused by projectiles, the weapon was also fired at a 30 centimeter (0.98 feet) cube of ballistic soap, used to simulate human tissue. At a distance of 9 meters (9.843 yards) the lead ball created a cavity of 530.2 cubic centimeters (0.1204 gallons) in the soap. The entry opening had a diameter of 60 millimeters (2.632 inch) and the exit hole a diameter of 20 millimeters (0.787 inch).7 Modern reproductions of Northwest guns, the standard firearm sold to Aboriginal people through the fur trade from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century, with barrel lengths from 71 to 81 centimeters (28 to 32 inches), reached similar projectile velocities.8 During the struggles between the hbc and the North West Com- 156 Injuries pany and Métis at the Red River Settlement in the summer of 1815, Peter Fidler observed the tremendous penetrating power of such firearms. He recorded that “they [the “Canadians & half breeds”] fired above 150 shots at us which penetrated the Logs of the Houses in many places.”9 While en route to Manchester House from York Factory, hbc post manager William Tomison observed an Aboriginal man killing a grizzly bear with only two shots from his musket. The...