Before Columbus arrived the Indians had weapons from the stone age. He actually thought he was in India because of the description by Marco Polo," inhabited by naked men with simpler societies than those of the Chinese and Japanese." When the Indians and the white men traded weapons the white men didn't know yet what they were getting themselves into.  The Indian's weapons went from stone age to a combination, like clubs with metal fixtures attached, and then into the white man's weapons.  The white men just traded the weapons and didn't show the natives how to use them so the Indians often lost parts of their bodies or got cut on the sharp steel.

 

 
When the European explorers arrived they found the natives hunting and fishing with proficiency and common knowledge instead of modernized weapons.  Every tribe had different ideas for hunting but they all almost always traveled in groups.  Some examples would be how some tribes ignited areas and drove game into the water, off cliffs, or into one area.  Probably the most imaginative idea was probably putting deer skins are their backs, then they would sneak up on their targets and unexpectedly kill them.  Most of the time they fished.  They used spears or string and hooks and used canoes in the deeper water.  
 

 

                    Knives~
The knife is the most used and wanted tool in any living situation.  The Indians got all the "trade" knives available, which were knives mad with iron not sharpened bones or rock chips.  Indians owned many knives, just not many varieties.  Fur trading brought thousands of finished blades and full knives.  Some were pretty simple others were very intricately designed. Some were used knives that had been cut down and sharpened, given a "new life".     

 

 
Indians could carry these knives safely and decoratively in pouches called a sheath.  (like the one showed at right) These were made with leather or rawhide and sometimes a wooden liner for extra protection. 

"The knife and sheath pictured is a representation of Plains day-to-day equipage.  The heavy leather case is badly painted not quilled or beaded, making it suitable for daily wear as well as for hunting and forays into enemy territory. (While some tribes wore their fanciest cloths into battle, many reserved their finery for a  triumphant homecoming and subsequent celebrations.) A belt cutout is incorporated into the painted design and two different types of rawhide stitching bind together the three layers of leather.  The knife has a plain, broad blade fitted to a section of elk leg bone; the joint covered with sinew." 

 
The knives were used for tools, cooking and taking scalps.  Warriors showed off the scalps they had.  Sometimes the knife they used, horses and women had captured.  In some tribes you weren't important until you got a certain number of scalps.  But in other tribes it is different. It us said, "You will never hear a crow boast of his scalps." 
"A Blackfoot dwelt rather on the number of horsed and guns he had captured; and else where with few exceptions, the 'coup' greatly overshadowed scalping as a deed of merit"  In some tribes the most important weapon was the coup stick.  It was sometimes said that when a man touched his enemy but didn't kill him, it was much more of an honor.            "Killing an enemy counts nothing unless his person is touched or struck. ", Assiniboin.
 

 
                        Tomahawks~
The weapon that is probably most associated with the Indians is the tomahawk. But, this weapon was greatly changed when the white men came in.  The while men decorated their custom made tomahawks as a sort of trade mark.  They were given to commemorate treaties, seal friend ships, and as presents for important leaders.  Sometimes called a hatchet.

                                                            

"This tomahawk has an iron hammer polled head.  The 22" long darkly stained maple haft  is studded with cones-happed brass tacks.  The grip was initially covered with a piece of plaid cloth, then wrapped sometime later with deer skin reinforced with linen cord.  The top end of the haft contains a metal inlay in the shape of a turtle.  Of the type possibly used by Woodland Indians or frontiersmen in the early 1800's." 
The whites also changed what it was made of. They rebuilt them by welding steel and brass. It was a weapon and also a symbol of peace, it was carried like a scepter. In most photographs you can see it with important Chiefs, it was like this for more than 200 years.  The hatchet was mainly used by Native Americans like a missile or a hand weapon. Some of the very first ones were made with sharp stones on one or both ends, all in different shapes. When the Europeans arrived most were then made with steel.  Some tomahawks were made with a bowl on the end to use for smoking. And the ceremonial ones were decorated with feathers and paint. That same hatchet was buried in the ground after reaching peace with an enemy, Many think that was the origin of the common phrase "to bury the hatchet." 
 

 
                             Jawbone Club~

 This is probably the most unusual weapon. It is made with buffalo and horse jawbones as pretty short clubs.  The teeth were grid down and the striking area was sharpened, then it was all decorated.

"This war club interpretation uses a buffalo jawbone as the club head. The 'hinge' area of the jawbone has been sharpened to a sturdy point - powerful enough to punch through flesh or even a man's breast bone.  The round hole becomes the eye of clubs bird-like silhouette.  The simple but powerful painted symbolism represents. to the artist, fire on the Plains - Something with quick and deadly potential."
 

 
                               Gun Stock War club~
 This club has many different forms. Its name started because it resembled a white man's butt of his gun. This club also represents partial readiness, accomplishments, and authority. Hair, carving, paint, brass tacks, hanging appendages, and feathers were often used decorations. 
                                                                                

"This gun stock war club is of a type found in areas between the western Woodlands and the eastern Plains. It is copiously tacked, yet not outlandish in appearance.  Its brood blade compliments the wide triangular configuration of the wood.  Snakeskin, suggesting swiftness, covers the grip; while the painted bear paw attests to the club's ability to cleave a pulverize."
 

 
                               Shield~
This shield was sacred t0 the Plains Indians.  They each made it themselves and put their own magic and good luck into them.  It was a wrriors main essence as well as obviously physical protection.
                                                                                        

"The shield shown is truly battle worthy in every respect. Two layers of rawhide are stretched over a strong  willow hoop and coaxed into a convex [,curved,] shape. The grips are not mere straps but are fully formed and reinforced arm and hand hold, enabling a warrior to extensively carry and maneuver this six pound shield with ease. This protection though the application of the artist's personal sun and lighting imagery.  Two pairs of eagle (faux) feathers fang freely, between them are a fixed two sacred objects - a medicine bag and a bear claw."  
 

 
                           Bow and Arrow~
The most used weapon of the Indians was the traditional bow and arrow.  Still, some Indians hunted with shotguns at close range for buffalo. 

 

                                       
The many wives of some of the Native men helped decorate all the weapons.  Almost all weapons were used for just that reason.  But others were decorated and kept very nice - decorated then used as decorations.
 The traded musket was almost a setback. it could take 1,2, or more minutes to load and was so heavy that to aim you had to carry a toll stand every where to set the musket on.  The Indians did not know how to properly use the traded weapons, they often lost limbs or some accidents were fatal.  Once the Indian started trading the Indians got addicted to white arms, because of some of the advantages. But with advantages there also cam disadvantages. They had to replace gun parts every thirty to forty shots, and they were extremely hard to find someone to replace the parts.  After a while the Indians had enough of the fire arms. They said that in the time they shoot one gun shot they could have shot up to eight arrows, mainly in the buffalo chases.
They Indians went though many hardships one with their weapons. They whites came in an thought they were improving the Indian weapons when really they were just fine as they were before.  Weapons were changing even in those days and still are.  Although it took time , patience, respect, cooperation's, and even lives.  The changing  of the weapons and the world around them made the Indian culture fade away.
 

 

 

Lacy Hoobler

8th American History

Rossville Jr. High

Plains History Project

2004

 

Bibliography