ARROWS, BOWS, AND QUIVERS
“The bow and arrow was the most useful and universal weapon and implement of the chase possessed by the Indians north of Mexico for striking or piercing distant objects.
Fig. 82. (S. 1–1.) Two without barbs and shoulders. The central one but for the notches would be of “expanding from the base” type. Material: dark chert (to right), argillite (left). Dr. T. B. Stewart collection, Lockhaven, Pennsylvania.
“Arrows. A complete Indian arrow is made up of six parts: Head, shaft, foreshaft, shaftment, feathering, and nock. These differ in material, form, measurement, decoration, and assemblage, according to individuals, locality, and tribe.... In the Southwest a sharpened foreshaft of hard wood serves for the head. Arctic and Northwest coast arrows have heads of ivory, bone, wood, or copper, as well as of stone; elsewhere they are more generally of stone, chipped or polished. Many of the arrow-heads from those two areas are either two-pronged, three-pronged, or harpoon-shaped. The head is attached to the shaft or foreshaft by lashing with sinew, by riveting, or with gum....
Fig. 83. (S. 1–1.) Pennsylvania types. Many expanding from base. Materials: jasper, quartz, black flint. Deisher collection, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
“Arrow-shafts of the simplest kinds are reeds, canes, or stems of wood. In the Arctic region they are made of driftwood or are bits of bone lashed together, and are rather short, owing to the scarcity of material. The foreshaft is a piece of ivory, bone, or heavy wood. Among the Eskimo foreshafts are of bone or ivory on wooden shafts; in California, of hard wood on shafts of pithy or other light wood; from California across the continent to Florida, of hard wood on cane shafts. The shaftments in most arrows are plain; but on the Western coast they are painted with stripes for identification. The Plains Indians and the Jicarillas cut shallow grooves lengthwise down their arrow-shafts, called ‘lightning marks,’ or ‘blood grooves,’ and also are said by Indians to keep the shaft from warping (Fletcher) or to direct the flight. The feathering is an important feature in the Indian arrow, differing in the species of birds, the kind and number of feathers, and in their form, length, and manner of setting....
Fig. 84. (S. 2–7.) Obsidian arrow-head lashed with sinews, from Arizona—probably Apache and of the ’50’s; there is blood dried in the grooves. Drawn by J. H. Richardson.
“Bows. The bows of the North Americans are quite as interesting as their arrows. The varied environments quickened the inventive faculty and produced several varieties. They are distinguished by the materials and the parts, which are known as back, belly, wings, grip, nocks, and string. The varieties are as follows: (1) Self-bow, made of one piece; (2) compound bow, of several pieces of wood, bone, or horn lashed together; (3) sinew-backed bow, a bow of driftwood or other brittle wood, reinforced with cord of sinew wrapped many times about it lengthwise, from wing to wing; (4) sinew-lined bow, a self-bow, the back of which is further strengthened with sinew glued on. In some cases bows were decorated in colors. The varieties characterizing the culture areas are distinguished as follows:—
“(1) Arctic. Compound bows in the East, very clumsy, owing to scarcity of material; the grip may be of wood, the wings of whale’s ribs or bits of wood from whalers. In the West excellent sinew-backed bows were made on bodies of driftwood. Asiatic influence is apparent in them.[[3]]
“(2) Northern Athabascan. Long, straight bows of willow or birch, with wooden wrist-guards projecting from the belly.
“(3) St. Lawrence and Eastern United States. Self-bows of ash, second-growth hickory, osage orange (bois d’arc), oak, or other hard wood.
“(4) Gulf States. Long bows, rectangular in section, of walnut or other hard wood.
“(5) Rocky Mountains. (1) Self-bow of osage orange or other hard wood; (2) a compound bow of several strips of buffalo horn lashed together and strengthened.
“(6) North Pacific coast. Bows with rounded grip and flat wings, usually made of yew or cedar.
“(7) Fraser-Columbia region. Similar to number 6, but with wings much shorter and the nocks curved sharply outward.
“(8) Interior basin. A long slender stick of rude form; many are strengthened by means of a sinew lining on the back and cross-wrappings.
“(9) California. Like number 7, but neatly lined with sinew and often prettily decorated.
“(10) Southwest. Like number 8, but seldom sinew-lined (Navaho).
Fig. 85. (S. 1–2.) All expanding from base. Probably knife-blades for hafting—because of curved edge. H. K. Deisher’s collection, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
“Small painted bows are used much in ceremony, especially by the Pueblos, who deposit them in shrines. In the south part of this area long cottonwood bows with cross-lashing are employed by Yuman and Piman tribes. The Jicarillas make a Cupid’s bow, strengthened with bands of sinew wrapping.”
Fig. 86. (S. 1–1.) Specialized quartzite blades, probably in the main projectile points, from Potomac village-sites.
We have observed that the form of bow and arrow varies among different tribes. Probably similar variations obtained in ancient times. Arrow-heads have been often found embedded in human bones. A prehistoric specimen was unearthed in 1869 from an Indian mound in the vicinity of Fort Wadsworth, Dakota, by Surgeon A. T. Comfort, of the United States Army. It consists of a human lumbar vertebra with a small arrow-point of white quartz embedded and incrusted in it. The vertebra is covered with a new bony formation, showing that the wounded man survived the injury for some months at least.
Fig. 87. (S. 1–2.) Expanding stem, serrated edges. Georgia forms. H. F. McIntosh’s collection, Albany, Georgia.
An ancient aboriginal skull from Henderson County, Illinois, contributed to the National Museum by M. Tandy, had a hole in the squamosal bone on the left side, inserted in which, when found and received by the museum, was a stone arrow-point of the perforator or drill type.
Fig. 84 is a drawing of an obsidian-pointed Indian arrow found in Arizona after a fight between Apaches and miners. The specimen was picked up some fifty years ago. It is grooved as were most arrows, and particles of dried blood still adhere to the shaft, and may be observed in the grooves. The feathers are cut off in order that it might be withdrawn, without enlarging the wound. Miss M. Gorton owns this interesting specimen.
Fig. 88. (S. 1–2.) Part of a cache found near Salem, Massachusetts. Material: porphyry. Peabody Museum collection, Salem, Massachusetts.
It is quite apparent that flint implements in which the stem expands from the base are more common in the West and South than in the North, and yet great numbers of both types (stem expanding and stem contracting) are very numerous. It is quite easy to classify most of them on the form of the stem. But others have almost no stem, the barbs being cut in the shoulders of what were at first leaf-shaped, or oval implements. There are not many stems which are concave in the base. Figs. 86 and 99 illustrate several expanding from base types.
Fig. 86 presents seven specimens from the Chesapeake, Virginia, and Maryland region. One of these has a straight base, six of them stem expanding, and all are typical quartzite specimens of the region.
Fig. 112 presents some Southern types from Georgia, North and South Carolina, in the Andover collection. The white quartz and three of the rhyolite specimens have stem expanding, but in some of the small barbed objects the stem contracts. Readers are requested to note the range in material in the South, as these twenty-two specimens show eight variations of four dominating materials, quartz, rhyolite, chert, argillite. Fig. 92, from Professor Holmes’s paper on the Potomac-Chesapeake tidal implements, presents three specimens expanding from base and three contracting. It will be observed that these forms were worked out from leaf-shaped objects, approximately indicated by the dotted lines.
Fig. 89. (S. 3–4.) Finely chipped object of unusual form from Kentucky. Material: concretionary flint. F. Wetherington’s collection, Paducah, Kentucky.
As one studies implements and puts to a severe working test the classification, it becomes clear that while an object may have an expanding stem, yet there are other features which overshadow the mere fact that the stem expands. Fig. 96, from Mr. Mitchell’s collection, shows a specimen in which the point is curved or turned, and the base beveled off sharply to an angle. The same is true of Fig. 93, from Dr. Winship’s collection, Minnesota, only that the base is square and there are no shoulders or barbs. Fig. 89, from Mr. Wetherington’s collection, Kentucky, is another type similar to these I illustrate, and all three are beautifully worked implements of the first grade, and it would be difficult to excel them anywhere in the world.
Fig. 90. (S. 1–2.) New Jersey types found near Orange, New Jersey. The central one is weathered rhyolite. The others are jasper and chert. The two lower ones have prominent stems, and show broad blades. They are very angular. This form is common in Georgia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, but rare elsewhere. Stephen Van Rensselaer’s collection, Newark, New Jersey.
In the entire West are many small delicate points made of semi-precious stones. A plate of these is shown in Fig. 97, from Mr. Hamilton’s collection, Wisconsin. Here we have the triangular points, oval knives, the expanding at base, the slightly barbed, and the deeply barbed. Figs. 98 and 99 present interesting and yet common types of specimens from a given locality. These range from the triangular to the expanding base and the contracting base; in Fig. 99 a rare specimen having four notches is shown. Fig. 100 presents typical Connecticut forms. The one to the left is a knife. Fig. 102, from Mr. Arnold’s collection, Albany, New York, presents nine beautiful specimens, in nearly all of which the stem is straight. The barbs are very long and wing-like, as in the case of many obsidian, agate, and carnelian points from the Northwest.
Fig. 80, of a buffalo skull found in North Dakota many years ago, and belonging to the Historical Department of the State of Iowa, illustrates the penetrating power of the flint arrow-head. This is a long, slender arrow driven into the skull, so that the point penetrated the brain. Fig. 81, a skull from California, Mr. H. K. Deisher’s collection, Pennsylvania, illustrates a human skull in which an arrow-point was driven into the brain through the frontal bone over the left eye. I have seen in museums human vertebræ and other bones which were pierced by flint arrow-heads. Such may be observed in the Ohio State Archæological, the Peabody, and United States National Museum collections.
In the American Anthropologist for 1901 Dr. Thomas Wilson wrote an article entitled “Arrow-Wounds.” This is deserving of preservation and will enable students to realize what an important factor the arrow was in ancient times. I omit all of Dr. Wilson’s remarks on discoveries of human remains in foreign countries in which arrow-points were embedded, and quote a portion of that which relates to the United States:—
“The skull of an ancient Indian man of advanced age, originally received by the Smithsonian Institution from Dr. L. G. Yates, of Alameda County, California, and transferred to the Army Medical Museum, exhibits a wound made by a long flint arrow-point which penetrated the left orbit.
Fig. 91. (S. 1–2.) Fine broad spear-head. Material: brown flint. Stephen Van Rensselaer’s collection, Newark, New Jersey.
“The arrow-point exhibited belongs to the class usually called perforators, or drills, but in this instance it was used as an arrow-point.
“Two specimens of prehistoric flint arrow-points or spear-heads found inserted in human bones were sent to the National Museum by Dr. John E. Younglove, of Bowling Green, Kentucky. One had pierced the pelvic bone and the other is still inserted in the head of a human femur. The material of both points is the black or brown lustreless pyromachic flint, common to the country in which it was found. The specimens came from a cavern about four miles northeast of Bowling Green, and an equal distance from Old Station.
Fig. 92. (S. 1–1.) Showing relation of specialized leaf-blade implements of various kinds to the original blade.
“Most of the specimens of arrows and arrow-wounds in the Army Medical Museum pertain to modern Indian warfare. The arrow-points of iron or steel show, by actual experience and ocular demonstration, the effect of these projectiles upon bones, the endurance of the patient, and the skill of the surgeon; consequently they are of considerable interest. They also show that none of the arrow-points were poisoned.
Fig. 93. (S. 1–2.) Quartzite knife. P. D. Winship’s collection, Park Rapids, Minnesota.
“An attack was made by Indians near Pecos River, Texas, September 1, 1870, in which one man was killed, one escaped, and the patient received an arrow-wound in the head and three gunshot flesh-wounds. Seven days later he was admitted to the hospital at Fort Concho, Texas, having traveled part of the distance on foot. He complained of soreness from the gunshot wounds, but spoke lightly of the ‘scratch’ made by the arrow on the side of his head. The gunshot wounds healed, but cerebral complications developed. An effort was made to reopen the wound in the temple, which proved unsuccessful on account of the resistance of the temporal bones, and doubt as to the cause of the existing symptoms prevented the surgeon from making a free incision. The case terminated fatally September 19, and the autopsy revealed the real injury to have been caused by the entry of the iron arrow-head half an inch from the external incision.
“A Mexican was killed by an arrow in an Indian fight seventy-five miles northwest of Fort Concho, Texas, February 22, 1868. He was treated by W. M. Notson, Assistant Surgeon, United States Army, who reported:—
Fig. 94. (S. 1–1.) Seven chipped objects. In the centre is a peculiar object with wide shoulders and angular sides. This form is found in the East, but is not common. Its purpose has never been satisfactorily explained. The object to the right with straight sides and point made angular is also seldom found save east of the Mississippi River. Why it was made in this form is not known. Material: jasper. H. K. Deisher’s collection, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
“‘When I opened the skull I found an incision extending clear across the opposite hemisphere, touching the dura mater just above the tentorium. The dura mater was stained, but I could find no mark on the skull. When I made the post mortem I found the arrow-head in the brain. When the patient was hit, he seized the arrow-shaft with both hands and pulled it out, then dropped and remained unconscious until he died, about six hours after.’
“Private John Krumholz, Company H, 22d Infantry, was wounded at Fort Sally, South Dakota, June 3, 1869, by an arrow, which, entering at the outer canthus of the left eye, penetrated the skull two inches, and is supposed to have passed between the skull and the dura mater. The operation for extraction, which was immediately performed, consisted in sawing nearly through the skull with a Hey’s saw, in close proximity to the arrow. Recovery was rapid, the soldier returning to duty later.
“Private Snowden, 14th Infantry, was one of a party surprised by Apaches, March 22, 1866, while en route from Maricopa Wells to Fort Goodwin, Arizona. He was struck in the back of the head by an arrow, which penetrated the skull, and nine days later reached Maricopa Wells, weak and fatigued, but unimpaired in intelligence. He believed the arrow-point to be within the cranium, since, in pulling on the shaft after receiving the injury, nothing but the shaft responded. The usual treatment was being given with success, when in examining the scalp there was discovered a small tumefaction over the parietal side of the left occipito-parietal suture. Pressure caused the issue of a small quantity of serous matter from the cicatrix of the arrow-wound. This was enlarged, and a probe passed into it was made to feel along the fissure in the bone, when it struck something metallic. The cranium was laid bare by a crucial incision, and with considerable difficulty a hoop-iron arrow-head one and three fourths inches long and one half inch in breadth was withdrawn from the brain. About a dram of pus followed it. After the operation the right side of the body was observed to be paralyzed. The patient’s condition fluctuated, but the first week in May his improvement had been such as to cause belief in his ultimate recovery. On the 7th he ate something which disagreed with him, and gradually grew worse until the morning of the 13th, when death ensued. The post mortem showed that the brain tissue to the extent of three fourths of an inch around the track of the arrow-point was softened and disorganized.
“Private William Drum, 14th Infantry, was wounded in a fight with Apaches, November 11, 1867. One arrow entered over the malar bone of the left side of the face, and passed along the lower border of the orbit to within half an inch of the nose. Another arrow entered through the tendons of the latissimus dorsi muscle on the right side, and passed directly backward toward the spine under the deep muscles, penetrating two and one half inches. On the 19th the arrow-point was cut out, the parts healed by first intention, and on December 3 the patient was returned to duty.
Fig. 95. (S. 1–1.) Obsidian, agatized wood, and carnelian points. These specimens are half-expanding bases, but the barbs and the serrated edges are distinguishing features. C. F. Case’s collection, Sams Valley, Oregon.
“John Fenske, a civilian, aged nineteen years, came to Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, on the night of August 20, 1862. He had been wounded on the previous day by an Indian arrow, shot from a distance of about twelve feet, which had entered horizontally between the third and fourth ribs on the left side, close to the vertebræ. The arrow—a barbed one with a head about three inches long—was buried an inch below the surface of the skin and had penetrated the left lung. On account of the barbs, it became necessary to make a large perpendicular incision in order to remove the arrow-head, which required considerable pulling, the sharp edges having been wedged in between the ribs with such force as to bend them over on each side. After dressing and the usual treatment, a healthy suppuration ensued, and the wound closed by granulation in thirteen days. The surgeon reported that ‘it was evident in this case that the arrow had penetrated the lung,’ which diagnosis was fully corroborated by the objective as well as the subjective symptoms. The patient left the hospital for his home, September 30, 1862, forty-two days after receiving the injury. The surgeon met this patient four years after and found the pleural symptoms considerably ameliorated.
Fig. 96. (S. 1–2.) A beautiful leaf-shaped implement. This was originally a thin, leaf-shaped blade and was notched at one end. The point was somewhat curved, an unusual feature, although occasionally found in specimens in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan. S. D. Mitchell’s collection, Ripon, Wisconsin.
Fig. 97. (S. 1–1.) Thirty-four clear California points from the Columbia Valley, Oregon. Materials: chalcedony, agate, and jasper. H. P. Hamilton’s collection, Two Rivers, Wisconsin.
Fig. 98. (S. 1–3.) These seventeen specimens are the common forms of the upper St. Lawrence basin. Many of them are of expanding base type. Locality, Wisconsin. Materials: quartz, sugar quartz, argillite, and flint. F. M. Caldwell’s collection, Venice, Illinois.
Fig. 99. (S. 1–4.) Sixteen various chipped implements of blue hornstone. These are types of the upper St. Lawrence basin. F. M. Caldwell’s collection. Venice, Illinois.
“A remarkable case of arrow-wounds was that of Private Osborn, 2d Nebraska Cavalry, wounded in a skirmish with Indians near Pawnee Reserve, Nebraska, June 23, 1863. Eight arrows entered different parts of his body, and all were extracted except the head of one which had entered at the outer and lower margin of the right scapula and passed upward and inward through the upper lobe of the right lung or trachea. The hemorrhage was so severe that all hope of his recovery was abandoned. The patient, however, rallied, but continued to suffer great pain on swallowing or coughing, and occasionally spat blood. In July, 1866, more than three years afterward, he called upon Dr. J. H. Peabody to be examined for a pension. Upon probing through a small fistulous opening just above the superior end of the sternum, the point of the arrow was found resting against the bone about an inch and a half below, the head lying flat against the trachea and esophagus, with the carotid artery, jugular vein, and nerves overlying it. After some difficulty the point of the arrow was raised above the sternum, and it was extracted without the loss of an ounce of blood, the edge grating against the sheath of the innominata artery during the operation. His health underwent a remarkable improvement, and the operator, in January, 1869, reported him perfectly well. His pension was not allowed.
Fig. 100. (S. 1–3.) Compare these specimens carefully with those found elsewhere in the country and note the difference. Materials: black flint and quartzite. Benton Holcomb’s collection, Simsbury, Connecticut.
“Private Spillman, 7th Cavalry, was wounded June 12, 1867, about a mile from Fort Dodge, Kansas, by a party of Kiowas, who made a dash upon the herd of horses he was guarding. He received three arrow-wounds—one in the right shoulder; one in the right side, striking the rib; and a third through the right lumbar region, penetrating the abdominal cavity eight inches or more. The last-mentioned wound was enlarged, two fingers were inserted on each side of the shaft until the base of the iron head was reached, the fingers serving as a guide and protection when, traction being made, the arrow was withdrawn. The wound proved mortal.”
And so I might continue giving illustrations of the power and force of Indian arrows. Students are referred to the Bibliography for further titles upon this subject. I would suggest that readers who expect to visit Washington at some time in the near future, call at the Army and Medical Museum and see the interesting exhibits on view illustrating the matters touched upon in the preceding pages.
The use of drills as war arrow-points brings up an interesting subject, and would indicate that many of the things that we have named according to our own fancy were doubtless made use of by the Indians for totally different purposes from those to which we have assigned them. Drills—the smaller kind—certainly possess great power of penetration, and when discharged may have entered to a greater depth. The broader points, however, would produce a more tearing wound and cause greater flow of blood. Broad points were more in evidence as hunting-points, for the obvious reason that if the deer or other game lost blood freely, its capture became more certain.
Professor Henry, of the Smithsonian, made a collection of buffalo and human bones, in which arrow-heads were embedded. In several of the buffalo ribs and scapulæ were arrow-points which had been shot through the animal, piercing the bone on the inner side. Wilson says that such specimens “illustrate the force with which an arrow can be shot by the bow, and, because of its initial velocity, there is no comminution of the bones. The edges around the wounds are not fractured or fissured on either side; there are no splinters made by the arrow on entering or leaving. This is due to the same principle that a pistol-ball fired at short range passes through a pane of glass without shattering it.”
A paper by W. Thornton Parker, M.D., describes the arrow and its mode of manufacture, and magnifies the malignity of arrow-wounds. The author explains the apocryphal difference between hunting- and war-arrows, saying:—
“The head of the war-arrow is shorter and broader than that of the hunting-arrow, and is attached to the shaft at right angles with the slot which fits the bow-string, the object being to allow the arrow in flight more readily to pass between the human ribs, while the head of the hunting-arrow, which is long and narrow, is attached perpendicularly to the slot, to allow it to pass readily between the ribs of the running buffalo.
“Ashhurst wrote an extensive article on arrow-wounds. He takes a favorable view of the curability of arrow-wounds, which is borne out by the cases cited, and says: ‘Those penetrating the chest and wounding the lung, although serious, are by no means mortal.... If the patient survives the hemorrhage, the prognosis is favorable, for the consecutive inflammation is trifling and requires no treatment beyond placing the patient at rest and affording a supply of pure warm air.’
Fig. 101. (S. 1–1.) Large spear-point from Coshocton County, Ohio. Material: clear chalcedony. W. C. Mills’s collection.
Fig. 103. (S. 1–3.) Large, notched flint spear-head. One of the largest in America. Owned by G. F. Arvedson, Carpentersville, Illinois.
“His table of arrow-wounds in the chest shows that out of eighteen cases there were thirteen deaths.”
In 1528 the Spanish traveler, Cabeza De Vaca, said that the Indian arrows were discharged with such force that the armor worn by the Spaniards did not always avail. He stated that the Indians in Florida used bows as thick as the lower part of one’s own arm and discharged arrows at a distance of two hundred paces “with so great precision that they missed nothing.”
He himself observed an arrow sticking in the base of an elm tree to the depth of a span (four inches).
Fig. 87 illustrates two specimens from near Albany, Georgia, typical Southern forms, the edges being slightly serrated. Figs. 101, 104, and three in 83, present objects with almost straight stems, 104 presenting Oregon types and 83 Pennsylvania. Fig. 86 marks the beginning of the transition from the straight stem to the stem contracting from the base. Such objects, with abnormally long stems, were undoubtedly originally much longer specimens. The point broke off and the specimen was re-chipped and made serviceable again.
White quartz was largely used in the South and in New England, also yellow quartz in North and South Carolina and Virginia. Quartz was harder to chip than other materials. Therefore, there are fewer highly specialized forms in quartz than in either flint or argillite. Yet examples are not wanting in which even so refractory material as quartz was worked down, chipped, and made into a very beautiful arrow-point or spear-head.
Fig. 104. (S. 1–1.)
Chipped implements, from the Willamette Valley, Oregon. B. W. Arnold’s collection, Albany, New York. Reproduced in natural colors. Highest grade of workmanship. Materials: agate, carnelian, jasper, chalcedony, etc.