Practicing Native American Archers in Montana

[David Long]

Does anyone know a Montanan with Indian heritage who hunts or makes traditional archery equipment? I am a photographer/writer researching a magazine article and I'd love to become aware of additional contacts. The person (s) does not have to live in Montana, but if their ancestors did.... Any information you can provide is greatly appreciated! I also posted this over on PP.
Dave

[ricktrojanowski]

I don't know of any, but on a recent trip to Montana I went to the Plains Indian Museum in Browning Mt.  The lady that managed the gift shop was involved in getting the college age kids in the town involved in practicing native arts and traditions.  I will p.m. you her email address she might be of help.

[OldBow]

The tribal headquarters for the SalishKootenai Confederated Tribes the Flathead Indian Reservation) is at Pablo, Montana.  You can Google up contacts for this group. I tried to contact them awhile back but was not successful.

OldBow
Missoula, Montana

[David Long]

Thanks you guys very much. I've been over to the Plains Indians Museum in Browning and have received some good information from David Dragonfly there. Also have been in contact with the SKC people and have met one Salish man from the Flathead reservation. Does it surprise you guys who have been into primitive archery for years: very few tribal members practice this. BTW Don, I have a decent sinew backed mountain maple I'll show you when I finish it.
Dave

[sumpitan]

Not quite what you're looking for, but Elmer Crow, a Nez Perce elder, still builds Native horn composites in Idaho.

Tuukka

[tom sawyer]

It is a little perplexing why more Native Americans don't make bows.  I mostly see the cheap nonfunctional replicas being made for sale in tourist spots.  I think people would pay top dollar for a real bow made the traditional way by a Native American, but I suppose you'd still be making minimum wage when you added up your time and expenses.  And when you're poor you don't have the luxury of spending time and money on hobbies.

Not sure the information on bowyering was passed down among the tribes either.  They mostly took up firearms as their weapons of choice early on, so there would have been a long time when the bow was out of favor as a weapon.  Native Americans would probably have to rely on the same techniques we do, examining old specimens and trying to figure out how they were made or simply replicating them to the best of our abilities using modern methods..

[JackCrafty]

I think you would probably find the same percentage of the population of Native Americans making functional primitive weapons as the percentage of us white boys making them.   We are a rare commodity. 

[carpenter374]

Im not sure about montana but among the cherokee archery is still alive and well. Ive also met lakota and apache who still practice the craft.

[David Long]

It's a sobering reality: for thousands of years Native Americans largely made a living with this technology, and in a few hundred it was lost to circumstance. I agree with you Lennie, it is perplexing, even when you consider the complex and depressing history of white/Indian conflict. Why is it that the Cherokee still practice archery? Was there a particular person(s) who is responsible for carrying and passing on the torch?

Dave

[carpenter374]

The cherokee have a national sport dedicated to distance shooting. It's called cornstalk shooting.

[Coo-wah-chobee]

It's a sobering reality: for thousands of years Native Americans largely made a living with this technology, and in a few hundred it was lost to circumstance. I agree with you Lennie, it is perplexing, even when you consider the complex and depressing history of white/Indian conflict. Why is it that the Cherokee still practice archery? Was there a particular person(s) who is responsible for carrying and passing on the torch?

Dave

.........."...and in a few hundred it was lost to circumstance." I wonder would ya mind explainin' that sentence david ?.bob

[David Long]

Sorry Bob, I was vague. The circumstances: bigotry, cruelty, callousness, complete disregard for human dignity, prejudice, and genocide, all on a colossal scale. Actions taken by Europeans perpetrated on Native Americans.
Dave

[D. Tiller]

Hmmm! Please go and study the Aztecs, Inca,  Tolmec, Maya, and others please. It was not just Europeans who also practiced "bigotry, cruelty, callousness, complete disregard for human dignity, prejudice, and genocide, all on a colossal scale" many nations of the early Americas also did the same and in a lot more cruel manner. The Aztec bring this to mind with there mass human sacrifices. It's very easy to paint a picture of first nations as being enlightened and pacifistic peoples. In some sense life could be more brutal and short in these societies.

Just being human gives us more aspects for divinity or deviltry than being Native American or European ever does.

[David Long]

I did not mean to suggest, D Tiller, that some peoples are incapable of injustice. We all are. We are talking here about why more people don't know how to make and use bows and arrows as the Native Americans did. Read Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel". Those are three primary reasons ("circumstances", if you will) that  I can't find a person here in Montana with ancestors who passed on to them the details of making and using archery tackle.

Dave

[majsnuff]

Thanks for this thread, I have a Grandson who is part Nez Perce, and at 14 years old wants to make a "Buffalo Hunting" "horse bow" as close to true Nez Perce as possible. I have been doing lots of research on the design, and we just this weekend started a 40"  Yew Bow.

Thanks David Long for starting this thread
Thanks sumpitan for Mr. Crow's name.


majsnuff