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

4. Arrows and Arrow Makers

4 Arrows and Arrow Makers Aboriginal Plains and Subarctic arrows show a wide range of types adapted to a variety of purposes. Uses of European-introduced materials such as metal for arrowheads exemplify the complex ways Aboriginal people combined European materials with their own technology to create articles uniquely suited to their needs. A look at the social aspects of arrow making and arrow use contributes to our understanding of these developments. The bow and arrow form a combined weapon system. While the bow propels the arrow, it is the arrowhead that accomplishes the desired effect on the target. Aboriginal archers knew that in an emergency they could fashion a crude bow from almost any strong sapling, small tree, or branch, but making well-balanced, true flying, dependable arrows was another matter. The Hidatsa arrow maker Henry Wolf Chief told the ethnographer Gilbert Wilson in 1911, “A good arrow could not be made in a hurry.”1 Despite the seemingly simple appearance of an arrow, arrow making was a highly complex process that demanded great skill and knowledge. To assure consistent shooting, the elasticity of every arrow shaft had to match the draw weight and the draw length of the bow, and the finished arrows had to be as uniform in size and weight as possible.2 Therefore , when shaping the arrow shaft, the maker had to keep in mind the weight of the arrowhead, the fletching, the sinew wrapping, and the glue before the different parts of the arrow were assembled, in order to Arrows and Arrow Makers 81 achieve the correct weight for the finished arrow. Because the weight of each component influences the flight characteristics of the completed projectile, all components had to be in correct proportion to one another. If, for instance, the arrowhead was either too light or too heavy, the arrow would not fly straight. All this precision work had to be accomplished without modern weighing technology. Just as clothing is often tailored to fit, a bow and its arrows had to be made compatible to the body dimensions, strength, and shooting technique of the archer .3 This was especially difficult to achieve if the maker and user of the archery gear were not the same person, as was often the case. A close examination of changes in the manufacturing features and quality of these weapons sheds light on the changing importance of traditional weaponry in Aboriginal societies, reflecting changes in their subsistence strategies and combat methods. Surviving Aboriginal arrows in museum collections still reveal much of the ingenuity of their makers. I examined over five hundred arrows for this study. This included taking measurements of their dimensions, sketching and/or photographing construction details, and checking for uniformity in arrow sets. Arrows of the Northern Plains In 1833–34 Prince Maximilian observed: The arrows of the Mandans and Manitaries [Hidatsas] are neatly made; the best wood is said to be that of the service berry (Amelanchier sanguinea). The arrows of all the Missouri nations are much alike, with long, triangular, very sharp, iron heads, which they themselves make out of old iron. . . . They know nothing of poisoning their arrows. The arrow-heads were formerly made of sharp stones: when Charbonneau first came to the Missouri, some made of flint were in use, and in the villages they are still met with, and in all those parts of the United States where the expelled or extirpated aborigines formerly dwelt. We were told that, in the prairie, near the Manitari villages, there 82 Arrows and Arrow Makers is a sand hill, where the wind has uncovered a great number of such stone arrow-heads. . . . Though all arrows appear, at first sight, to be perfectly alike, there is a great difference in the manner in which they are made. Of all the tribes of the Missouri, the Mandans are said to make the neatest and most solid arrows. The iron heads are thick and solid, the feathers glued on, and the part just below the head, and the lower end, are wound round with very even, extremely thin sinews of animals. They all have in their whole length, a spiral line, which is to represent the lightning. The Manitaries make the iron heads thinner, and not so well. They do not glue on the feathers, but only tie them at both ends, like the Brazilians. The Assiniboines frequently have very thin and indifferent heads to...