Strange places research takes you

[half eye]

Hey fellas,
     Thought I do this post so you can have an idea where some of my "off-beat" ideas come from, other than bein just plain nuts
     If and when I come across something that sounds interesting or unusual I make a note of it and start to dig into the matter and man ya cant believe the things you find out. I'd like to share one trip about NA bows with you. A little long winded but maybe you will find it interesting.

Im going to put quotes in from my readings ( attribution at the end) and then explain how I got to the far out end of it.

"In every Indian wigwam were kept bow-staves on hand in different stages of readiness for work" and "These treasures were put into careful training at once, bent,straightened, steamed,scraped, shaped whenever a leisure moment arrived." (1)

"The curvature of the bow was determined almost entirely by individual strength or caprice" (2)

"The warrior and the hunter tended their bow with as much care as though they were children. Every time they were used they were careful to oil them to preserve their elasticity." (3)

The seasoning process is slow and very thorough. A little cutting, shaping and scraping with knife or piece of glass, then a hard rubbing with buffalo fat or brains, and the stick is put aside in a warm place, to be worked at again in a few days or weeks."  (4)

"The making of a good bow was a task involving long and painstaking labor.It was wrought into shape only a little at a time, being repeatedly oiled meanwhile, and constantly being handled and worked to keep the wood pliable."   AND " The bow, if not in actual service, was kept close in a case, and the arrows in a quiver. Great pains were taken that they should not by any chance become wet, and much time was spent handling them, that the bow should not lose it's spring and the arrows should not warp."  (5)

1.) Mason, quoting several writings of Consult Henry Balfour, John Murdoch, D.N. Anuchin etc.
2.) Captain, J.G. Bourke, letter
3.) Timerlake, quoted by Jones, So. Indians, p. 252
4.) Dodge, Plains of the Great West, Putnam, ppp. 348,349
5.) J.B. Dunbar: Pawnee Indians, sec. 20

In the course of looking into the documents listed and references, I noticed that there was a lot of information in military dispatches regarding various expeditions. While looking into that I ran across the name of P.H. Ray and remembered that from quotes in several Smithsonian reports. Very interesting man (from Georgia) Civil war, Indian expeditions to the Yellowstone, headed the military escort for the studies of the Eskimo in the Arctic sponsored by the Smithsonian, raised volunteers for the Spanish American war etc. etc.
    He was considered an expert observer by the scientific community. I saved the actual report of the 1873 Yellowstone Expedition because it has references to actions by Custer and it's easy to see why he screwed up and got his command killed later on and some of the problems they had regarding ordnance.
   
      One of Rays' reports to the Military Hqts, and the Smithsonian, mentioned these wood manipulations to "bows in training" Thats why I got really fascinated with things like the grease/pitch/ oil finish, the counter-flexing (working), and the "training of the wood from green to bow. So my next thing I,m trying is this:
     The Ironwood in the pictures was cut as dead standing, but after splitting and rough shaping I noticed that the wood was not yet dry or cured because while checking the floor tiller bend (how much it would bend w/o excess force) This was evidenced by the fact that the wood wanted to stay in the bent position with slight pressure. That in turn made me to try out the whole "bow in training" concept. I figured that instead of just putting up the straight stick to dry I cold bent the stick into a general reflex. This I did by placing the stick into my little bending gizzmo  and bent it to the shape you see in the pictures and then put it up to cure. I checked for the first 2 days and it did not change it shape at all, and now 9 days later it is still in the shape I bent and drying nicely and will keep it's shape after bending 4-6" in the normal direction so it's gettin real close to being a bow. I will post the bow after I'm sure the stick is dried sufficiently. In the meantime here's some photos of the start of this experiment........research is a circular path at least for me, but I'm dizzy anyway
rich

[Badger]

  I agree with you on training green wood, or even storing bows in a trained position if moisture fluctuations are significant. It can be interesting to pick up little bits and pieces of what our forefathers did with thier bows, good post.

[half eye]

I figured that if needs to dry and will hold a shape.....why not let 'er dry in a reflex? Mostly I'm trying to see if I can get in their state of mind and try to learn to understand as much as a Non Native American can learn.....there will always be certain things whites wont be privy to though.
rich

[Badger]

    I think if we make one assumption that they had a good reason for everything they did  we can slowly figure out thier methods and motives. This is how we earn our stripes!

[Del the cat]

Nice post Rich.
It's interesting the intimate connection with the past in the US, like Ishi's story.
Here in the UK there is no living connection to our heritage, closest thing is the Mary Rose and it's haul of bows .
I think we are all lucky to have such a great wealth of information about our obsession
Del

[half eye]

Absolutely Mr. Cat....

I guess so that I dont look too dingy, that connection to Custer was this:
     during the 1873 Expedition PHRay was a second Lt. in charge of the Commissariat. He saved their bacon several times, once by making rafts from wagons and empty tac barrels. Anyway the same report mentions that Custer had a couple separate encounters with warriors in numbers of about 30-35 and each time there was a charge, a short fight, and the Native horsemen disbursed. There was no mention of anything other than an accidental cavalry encounter. Secondly there is mention that the Ordnance people ran a test of their ammunition( HE Shell) and only 4-5 rounds out of 30 for their 3" guns discharged, actually exploded as advertised. Those two seemingly innocent occurrences are more than likely, responsible for why Custer acted so recklessly and disdained bringing his Gatling guns or artillery. (At the time it was common knowledge that Native Americans had not so much Fear but great respect for the damage done by high explosive shell fire. Anyway just a few years after the expedition he repeated his actions and got his "holy crap" moment. The things ya find out,eh?
rich

[loefflerchuck]

Thank you Rich

[half eye]

Chuck, I'm glad you got some enjoyment from it.
rich

[Jim Davis]

Training a green stave is presented in TBB  Vol. I

Research is a commendable thing, and more people ought to do it. It's looking into history to learn from it and to avoid mistakes.

It is beneficial to keep a couple of things in mind when investigating a primitive culture.

First, that culture's practice is generally driven by what works, but often, the reason it works is unknown to  them or attributed to some reason that is not correct. This is true of our own culture.

Second, archaeologists recognize that it is impossible to get an accurate view of a past culture by studying the current members of that culture, such as the sources cited above studying the members of those cultures living at the time of study.

Margaret Mead ran afoul of that problem in studying the Samoan culture. The young people she studied fed her a line of baloney when they found her to be a good audience.

Then too, the naturalists of the 1800s in this country were generally romanticists who were influenced by writings like Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha.

Even Saxton Pope--beloved by most  of us--was a flowery writer, as was Maurice Thompson.

All very interesting, but keep a few grains of salt handy.

Jim Davis

[JonW]

My two most enjoyed hobbies got their start from researching. The challenge with good researching is being able to discern for oneself what is to be believed and what to not spend much time on. I am like Rich in this aspect. I am looking for results and not opinions. Jim I try to keep the whole shaker handy. 

[nclonghunter]

Thanks Half Eye, those are some interesting clips. I would like to give the green bent stave a try. I have been rubbing bear oil into my primitive style staves for a while. Also rub it into my rawhide strings to help keep them good. If nothing else the observers noted the great care that was taken with hunting tools not unlike many of else.

I always return to this but it is fascinating to me how close the gear carried by Otzi ( discovered in the Alps) reassembles what Columbus and early explorers noted the NA carrying. An ocean apart and thousands of years but the different cultures learned what works and was needed ending up with almost the same gear..it was all taken and fashioned from nature..

I have been accused of being a little nuts also...

[half eye]

Thanks Jim, I am aware of the romantic flowery notions and speech, I suppose thats why I put the post up. Actually the military reports and letters are the same (within their own jargon). But the more ya find and read the more apparent that becomes, I could not agree more than your assessment of Saxon Pope.....self aggrandizing bugger. Even Art Young lost some respect, for me anyways, when he wrote about their great fun/challenge of flinging arrows at deer from 75 yards and counting how many "hits". But every now and then you can get into reports ( one leading to another etc.) from people who lived with Native Americans for years and the difference is readily apparent. You are right about the salt, bud

Jon, ya hit that right on the head, bud. If what you read "suggests" some type of process or action and since ya cant be sure if it is so, then try for yourself untill your satisfied.....it's all about the quest and little about the" thats not how we do it". The fun is in the questioning, and the ATTEMPT to understand.

NC.  Thats what,s great about research for your personal hobby. The questions and wonderment (is that a word?), leading to more research, leading to more questions etc. etc. To me thats as much fun as the experimenting part. One without the other would be way less satisfying, at least for me.

Thanks for the comments fellas,
rich

[Jim Davis]

"wonderment (is that a word?)"

Yes, it's a fine word and you used it correctly. When we stop wondering,  we might as well pass on.

As far as Otzi and the archaic Americans having  similar weapons, it seems that communication was much better in the ancient world than most of us realize. It's established beyond reasonable doubt that  the first Americans walked over from east Asia when the oceans were about 300 feet lower than at present. And within  a millennium (or far less) pranced all the way to the southern tip of South America. (This reinforced by information in an archaeology class I took this spring at Murray State University).

My point being, that people and ideas spread across the globe pretty quickly as the glaciers retreated--If they had been slower, the sea level would have risen and cut off  their path.

Weaponry styles reflected the availability of materials as much as the sharing of methods.

All very interesting, and a gives a sense of wonderment!