What type of maple do you think they used?

[Jakesnyder]

Just curious. Love looking at old artifacts or pics and just wondering if it was sugar maple or not. Of course we don't know for sure but what types are around south Dakota which is where this was found.

[willie]

the current range of sugar maple covers Minnesota with a bit in SD.  so it could have been the hard maple.
consider also the river bottoms in the dakotas were much more extensively treed before the steam boats arrived

do the tips seem reminiscent of eastern woodland tip styles? the bow itself might have been built further east

[JW_Halverson]

The only maple that is widespread in the Dakotas is the boxelder tree, a uniquely unsuitable species for the bowyer.

CURRENT range includes the Black Hills as I know of a few planted here in Rapid City, but introduced species are not a representation of what was available in the pre-colonization era. I seriously doubt there were any sugar maples in the area prior to the homesteading era since distribution maps for the species show sugar maples only in the eastern two thirds of Minnesota and the eastern third of Iowa. If this bow IS a sugar maple I would have to wonder if the source was cross-tribal trading routes?

https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/misc/ag_654/volume_2/acer/saccharum.htm#:~:text=Native%20Range&text=Within%20the%20United%20States%20the,the%20southern%20border%20of%20Tennessee.