5 Types of Weapons Used By The Native Americans

When you close your eyes and picture the weaponry featured heavily in America’s wild west, you most likely imagine settlers and their inclination towards guns and artillery. Your mind might harken back to the early days of Smith and Wesson or Samuel Colt, when the widespread manufacturing of firearms spurred the US Government and smaller outfits of outlaws and bandits with a bevy of weaponry options.

Despite the generational outburst of better guns and developed artillery, however, they weren’t the only options available to the folks traversing the western frontier, whether it be hunters, soldiers, or both. Rather, some of the most fascinating and unique weapons choices came from warrior bands across hundreds of Native American tribes, who utilized a diverse set of weapons for both sourcing their food and defending their homeland.

To garner a better understanding of what these types of weapons were and how they were, and in some cases, still are used, we’re breaking down the major groups of arms and protection systems of Indigenous Americans. Thus, here are the five types of Native American weaponry from the old west…

0:00 Introduction
1:08 Range Weapons
3:57 Striking Weapons
7:10 Cutting Weapons
9:07 Defensive Weapons
12:30 Spiritual Weapons

Thank you for watching.

Copyright © 2022 Footprints on The Frontier. All rights reserved.

[et]

Comanche war shields were made from the hump of the bison, where the skin was up to an inch thick. They were said to be bullet proof, and that was no myth.
One day, a pair of Comanche scouts were seen on my 19th century family's ranch, and two of the cowboys gave chase. A running gun battle ensued. When the ranch hands returned, they said that they could not understand how their bullets had no effect at ranges where they could not have missed. Of course, one factor was probably that the gunpowder of that time was weaker than modern compositions. Still quite impressive that those shields worked that well.

[fredrichenning]

Copper did not come from meteorites, but from the area around Lake Superior. My uncle found a copper spear head in the field in Wisconsin. He sold it to the local museum for 25 dollars.

[q-man]

Copper from meteorites? There was considerable trade in Copper from the lake superior Isle Royale and the kewanaw peninsula.

[alitlweird]

The fella at 6:55 is wearing a Crucifix™️ around his neck. Badass! 🤩✝️

[georgecuyler]

Before the Gunstock clubs, there was the jawbones of larger animals like moose, buffalo and elk

[Bayan]

Many tribes considered the gun itself a spiritual weapon. For instance in the east, many tribes revered the gun, calling it their "Thunderstick", which wasn't just because of the sound. To Native Americans, especially woodland and tribes in the east, they believed that thunder wasn't a meteorological condition, but came from the Thunderbird, one of their deities that also shot lightning out of its eyes. To have that power in their hands, in the form of the gun, was a great thing. The serpent or dragon on the left side of the gun, was also considered spiritual. It represented in loose terms for many tribes, the "horned underwater serpent" which was the opposite of the Thunderbird as it lived below, while the Thunderbird lived in the sky. The serpent is also described as having horns and scales of copper, so it even resembles the serpent on the left side of the trade guns the Native Americans in the east and even the midwest prized for so long. Even long after cartridge arms came into use, the smoothbore flintlock trade guns were still favored among some Native American tribes for their use, and their spiritual ties for the user. In the book "For Trade or Treaty: Guns of the American Indians 1600-1920", there is a smoothbore flintlock trade gun, exactly like guns made 100 years before it that was made in 1874 for the Northwest Fur Company. It showed that no matter how advanced guns got, some tribes wanted the guns that they had used for decades on end because of their spiritual ties to them.

[alanmoffat]

Australian Indigenous natives in Northern Australia used a spear throwing device similar to those in America, called a Woomera.

[whawhawha]

The type of material for the bow varied. The Dene in northern Canada used a composite horn and sinew bow which was superior to the wood bows. I believe the Cree in the area used wood bows. Part of the Dene tribe would move south to become the Dine (navajo). Their bow was essential for this movement.

[robertdean]

The spirit shield received it's pictures and colors from the warriors vision quest along with his medicine bag

[paulmentzer]

According to most wood experts, the best wood for bows is Osage, but Osage only grows in the area around Oklahoma and was controlled by the Commaches. The Second best wood is Yew. Yew is a rare wood in North America, but it was the preferred wood for the English Long Bow for it exists in Europe but not the Steepes. The third best wood is Hickory, which exist in North America, South China, Southeast Asia and into eastern India.
Other woods were not as good as the top three (and they close relatives) for you need a wood that was strong and yet flexible thus the above three were preferred.
One of the problems with most First Americans bows is most were designed for use in forest, thus rare to have a bow of more then 50 pounds (and even the Mongols of Asia, known for they 100 to 150 pound bows, used 50 pound bows when on horseback, the heavier bows were only used when the Mongol was dismounted, 50 pounds were good enough for most purposes and North America First Americans never saw the need for bows over 50 pounds for volume of "Fire" in the Form of arrows was more important then the power of any one arrow).
Thus North American First Americans used bows and arrows but concentrated on what we would call "Fire power" (Volume of arrows) over the strength of any one arrow (as in English Long Bows and Mongolian composite bows).
Just a comment of First Americans' bows and arrows.

[parsaledm]

The way you said Atlatl (spear thrower) is believed to be the ancient pronunciation that the Aztecs or Mayas used for it.

[dionpeek]

Thanks very interesting and a lot of information!

[leocharboneau]

Hand to hand, eye to eye. No question back then!

[bewilderment]

I have a stoneclub that my father found years ago. Recently l found a stone ax head, flat one one side but worked all the way around.

[carlmcintyre]

Nice video. Hope you got an A on your High School project.

[davidmccuskey]

His comments about bows was misleading. The Indians of the Rockies made bows from Big Horn Sheep Horns. Other tribes warriors would bring whole strings of their ponies to trade for those bows and according to trappers those warriors would even trade their wives for one of these bows. You can see some in the Buffalo Bill Museum and a couple of other museums.

[richardcormier]

The gunstock club shape was taken to resemble the stock of a French fusil de Chas which means the gun of the hunt the rear of the stock has a downwards drop that many call the bent cows hoof from around 1645 and latter the musket in your presentation looks like to be North West fowler maybe similar to a tecumseh version I'm not nit picking on your video I enjoyed it very much just wanted to give you a heads-up I enjoy the many flintlock muskets I own and also part Micmac indian

[brianconnor]

Bows were made from wood AND bone. Most bows were made from wood but a time consuming process that was also done was making bows from mountain sheep horn. These bows were very powerful and easy to pull. The arrows from these bows flew much faster than wooden bows but as these were more difficult to make and get the sheep horns they obviously were only for the chosen few not the many.

[brianferris]

thank you for sharing your time and video work with me @Footprints of The Frontier 🙏

[madpatriot]

Actually there were lots of people that used bone and antlers in their bow compounding Construction