Fellow archers its has been along time since I posted on this forum. Just wanted to add my opinion. I will not attack anyone here and believe we all can learn. First of all selling a book or dvd is not an evil. A lot of information today is free on YouTube or forums etc. but the best information is what someone has worked very hard at and that includes tons of research and historical data which no one gives up for nothing. I have never got a book or dvd "free" and I will spend money in the future to learn. I would never make a white wood bow that was raw wood. The heat treatment method by Mark St. Louis changed all of that for us and it is great. I have committed most of my life to the study of Southeastern native people. My family has two American Indian DNA haplogroups thru my grandfather and my grandmother had a small % Native American thru autosomal dna. Haplogroups determine your origin on this planet. This is why I had such a great interest in native people that live and lived in my region. We are related to the Siouan Catawban speakers in Coastal Virginia, North and South Carolina thru our last association with the Pee Dee Indians. This is from the Pee Dee River of the Southeastern United States. I also teach Native American migrational history and Native American DNA history. I have a very long history myself of making and using primitive bows and have produced two dvds on the subject. We can all agree to disagree but attacks are not good for any of us and our noble sport. I have been working with Keith Shannon with his project and will say he is one of the best bow makers I know and he would never claim that. Also he is an honest man that I trust. I have never seen anything about the man that made me think any negative thoughts about his character. He is smart and works very hard on his research. He asked me to be a part of this because of my historical knowledge on the Southeastern natives and my long use of white bows. Also Billy is a great guy. I have been on long hunting trips with him and found him to always carry his weight more than fairly in all cases. He has taken me on trips and give up his best hunting spots so I could take game with my primitive gear. … Yes he might be slightly eccentric "Naked at times" but we all are if you think about it for long. I have been seen in malls and public places wearing brain tanned buck skins. But no I am completely normal. LOL If you want to really know a man's true character hunt or fish with him a couple years and you will find out the truth. At any rate I will list just a few observations taken from the best historical documents known. These were made from first contact Europeans or very early contact Europeans of Spanish, French and English people. A lot of this data comes from The Indians of The Southeastern United States by John R. Swanton. 1946 The Classics of the Smithsonian Anthropology. The Southeastern Indians by Charles Hudson. 1973 Antiques of the Southern Indians, Particularly of the Georgia Tribes. By Charles C. Jones 1873. The list is long. The one thing that stands out in all of these fantastic books is the knowledge the natives had of "Fire Hardened" techniques. It was documented over and over. Adair in 1775 states the Indians in the Savannah river used fire hardened spears for fish. Bartram in 1792 states the same "Fire Hardened method for spears. Fire hunting and Fire fishing was used and documented. Firing pottery to forever change the material. Using fire to completely alter brain tan skins from the smoke/formaldehyde and other chemicals known to preserve wood. Even today formaldehyde is used in the construction of plywood and other wood products. It is in smoke naturally. Flint was altered by use of "fire" to permanently alter the material. Natives used fire to burn out bowls/Mortars and trees for dugout canoes. One could see the moisture repelling properties with a dugout at first glance. The Yuchee on the southern rivers were observed to fire hardened solid wood arrow shafts. Timberlake says of the Cherokee their bows are dipped in bear grease and seasoned before the fire. Were they just heating the grease to penetrate the wood? The wood "Seasoned" is telling because it speaks of a long process.
The key to seasoning lies in the word itself: A Season. A long process not a quick heating for fat penetration. My opinion for sure but I am entitled to an opinion. Speck specks of even minor small projectile points for blowguns being "Fire Hardened. Garcilaso in 1723 speaks of Fire Hardened arrows of the Alibamo Indians. From the history of the Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida by B. F. French 1869 it was stated about the natives that forever what they make everything is harden first with fire. Natural History of East and West Florida. 1775. Hickory and other woods being used for the manufacture of their bows which they "natives" season "thoroughly" with artificial heat which is "Fire" Another account from after an attack on Europeans in Florida it was stated after finding weapons used in the attack that the natives fire hardened everything they made. Also the so called "black yew" which was found among the Utina and Timucua tribes around the St Johns river. There is no yew here in the southeast but hickory fire hardened looks amazing like yew. This was pointed out by Billy Berger who is very familiar with both species. This is a small sample of the natives knowledge of fire and the application of it in construction and altering of most everything they had. I have never believed for one minute that the native people here were ignorant of the negative effects moisture has on raw wood. I have used heated fat on raw hickory with bad results. After many applications and yes I heated the bow limbs to hopefully increase the fat penetration. And I was disappointed later with moisture gain. Native people used fire every day not just a hunting camp a couple of days a year. And they were out in the extreme humidity of our region most of the time. Bows were used not just for hunting in the fall but year round for war, fishing and simple defense from critters with teeth. The bows mentioned by the earliest Europeans are not weak follow the string white wood bows but weapons of great speed and strength. I believe the connection to what Keith has done and what the first native americans were doing is real. It would be a great argument in court anyway. Granted this knowledge was lost overnight with smallpox and the gun but it seems to me we see a correlation. I also know i could not cure cancer without some disagreement from someone. But they are entitled to an opinion based on their knowledge and experience. Also the native people in the Southeast thought of Fire as a sacred thing. Some tribes keep a fire burning all year long in the longhouse and putting it out only once during the Green Busk or New Year. It was a symbol of the sun which was the giver of life on earth. It must be remembered also that the American indian people today account for less than 2% of the population in the United States and that includes the Alaska Inuits and related people. What does that mean. Well it accounts for over 98% of native knowledge being lost. But the historical volumes from eye witness accounts are the best and only information we have other than us modern primitive archers to keep experimenting. Like Keith Shannon and Mark St Louis and Paul Comstock. Paul Comstock breaking the dam with the use of white wood bows when they were considered second string woods only used in the past by so-called primitive people. Even if a person used fire to "dry out a bow quickly from rain or river what is the chance that over thousands of years someone would not have "over" done the process. Millions of natives over thousands of years. Too believe that is not giving native people much credit. I did this very thing in my short 62 years by accident making a "survival" bow and I decided to speed things up with fire. It did not clink in my mind at the time but it changed the small survival bow for the better. This is the ugly bow in my DVD Native Arrows and Points. Lets keep an open mind and work together to move primitive archery forward. It is a passion for all of us.
