Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: High-Desert on March 01, 2020, 08:37:52 pm
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My wife and I took my son to a museum in Hood River Oregon and we saw this bow, it has 1847 inscribed on it, but the label only said sinew backed bow, it’s length and a date and no tribe attributed to it. Although it was next to a Klickitat quiver. I have seen another photo of a bow that was nez Perce that looked almost identical. Anyone have any info on this style of bow?
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Thanks for sharing this. Any guess on the length?
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It’s 41” long
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Typical Plains bow. I wouldn't put much stock in where it ended up indicating where it originated from.
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Thanks pat, definitely didn’t seem like something from this area, but I wasn’t sure. Here’s a photo of the nez Perce bow I found in a post from the past. Looks nearly identical.
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Yes, and they traded very extensively in that broad area.
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Yeah plains style bow.
If you can tell what wood it’s made out of it would be easier to nail down a smaller range of origin.
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It was hard to tell, but it looked like ash
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Really interesting design,,I have never tried that type
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Really interesting design,,I have never tried that type
really? probably one of the most common styles of the plains. even the wood, ash was pretty common.
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never made one with that much set back in the handle,,
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These are generally known as plains type bows but no one knows where they originated. They were just as much the Great Basin or Columbia Plateau bow. As has been stated there was a trade network in the area. It also could be a Klikitat made bow. The sinew backed juniper bows from the Plateau tribes are some of the finest bows I have seen in the Americas. In a early historical account of the Blackfoot from the first half of the 1800s it mentions - the Blackfoot obtained their best bows from from the tribes to the east. These were bows of bighorn sheep horn and cedar(rocky mountain Juniper and sometimes yew). Does the wood have a yellowish color? That would suggest juniper. The sinew wrap nocks are more common on the western plains, west throughout the great basin and up to the plateau. Most eastern plains bows of this shape had a cut in nock.
Either way it looks like a well made bow. Nice find! Would be great to see a picture of the belly wood.