Can anyone offer any info on these bows and arrows? pic heavy

[hiites]

I'm new to this forum and was unsure if this was the appropriate place for this post. My appologies if it is not. I aquired a couple of old bows and arrows roughly 25 years ago and at the time, was told they were from the early 1800's. The points are iron, the arrow shafts are dogwood. Neither arrow had any fletching when I got them and I fletched one of them myself. The shorter bow is made of bois d'arc and is 55" long. The longer one is 72.5" and I'm unsure what kind of wood its made of. Any ideas as to what tribes they may belong to or any info or opinions would be appreciated.

 

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[hiites]

Pictures of the longer bow.

 

[Rege-PA]

I don`t know much about your bows but what you have found out is correct as to the wood. The iron arrow points look to be of the plains type for hunting buffalo and could have been black smith made or fashioned by the Indian himself. There are books and others on this forum may be able to assign a tribe to these items as they are made in a certain way diagnostic to that tribe. You`re very fortunate to have acquired them as they are rarer than the earlier flint points because their use period was shorter.

 

[hiites]

Thanks Rege. Do you have any specific books that you would recommend?

 

[Rege-PA]

Hi Hiites...The books on Indian trade items only show general examples of iron points and bows. You need to do some online research that will suggest specific publications, sometimes they are just pamphlets but will be specific to a tribe or ethnic group. Your Osage bow shows signs of being smoothed and carved with improvised iron or stone tools as I can see no file or rasp marks, a sign of an early bow. Sometimes the area where you got them can be a clue but not always. Neat stuff and worthy of more study, your bigger museums may have someone who can tell you more. Keep us informed.

 

[hiites]

Thanks for the info and suggestions. If I can find anything out, I'll let you know.

 

[nwctrader]

Its a reproduction. They never used turkey feathers, always hawk or eagle. The arrow nock is not like they made them in the period of use, nor is the bow anything like the originals.

 

[kuger]

Its a reproduction. They never used turkey feathers, always hawk or eagle. The arrow nock is not like they made them in the period of use, nor is the bow anything like the originals.

guess you didnt read what he said....and they did use turkey feathers,where there were turkey's!

 

[ouachitacaveman]

The bois-d-arc tree, more commonly known as the osage orange, was
a favorite tree used for making bows by native indians here in Arkansas territory.
Do you know which state your bows and arrows came from?

 

[Little River Hunter]

I believe the bow is from a different tribe, ie; not Plains. Southeastern and other Woodland Indians removed in the 1800s pretty much all began using bois d'arc/Osage orange for their bows. This one looks like it was made from a limb with the bark removed, as opposed to actually been worked down to a certain grain depth. The nock appears to be more from a SE tribe. Creeks and Seminoles sometimes used two different style nocks on each end; a dowel-shape and a diamond-shaped nock. Judging from the lightening groove in the dogwood arrows, it appear to be from a Southern Plains tribe. The trade point is another indication pointing to a Plains tribe. I would have to say the set of arrows are from the 3rd quarter of the 19th c. The bow may be as well. What State did they come from?

Nice set!

LRH

 

[JRedHorse]

Looks like a "Learning" bow , as we trained our young to use a bow we would start them off with a very light draw weight and as they progressed we would graduate them to higher and higher draw weights, the arrow nocks look very similar to the Powhatan style bows of the Virginia area.

As for using Turkey feathers WE SURE DID and would prefer them over the softer delicate Eagle feathers, Eagle feathers were used by most Plains Tribes as special War honor or tribute feathers, the only time I have ever seen plains style arrows adorned with Eagle feathers was when the arrows were designated as "Medicine arrows" which were never fired from a bow.

You must keep this in mind, we used what was available in our areas, and bows were constructed out of all sorts of hard woods.
I have been creating my peoples bows for decades this is how I know.