Native American Research

     Native Americans are well known for living off the land and using natural resources for tools and other daily necessities. After doing some research I became very interested about how the weapons and tools made by the Native Americans evolved over time and influenced what we use today. After researching several different tribes I became fond of the Plains Indians because of the numerous weapons and tools they used and the techniques they used to do things such as hunt, fish, and farm. The animals hunted in the plains region was similar if not the same to the game hunted in theses regions today. Big game animals such as deer, antelope, elk, and buffalo were the most commonly hunted animals by the 1800's. The only animal not hunted as frequently today due to low populations is the buffalo. Small game was commonly hunted as well such as rabbits and other small rodents. These animals provided the Indians with food, clothing, and tools. By the 1800's the plains tribe was a horseback and buffalo tribe meaning that they learned to follow herds of buffalo because the buffalo were one of the most important resources available to the tribe.

     The weapons used by the Plains tribe consisted of bow and arrows, spears, axes, clubs, and knifes. The tribe had certain techniques that worked for them when they were hunting, most of the techniques used influenced how we hunt today in the modern era. The weapons used by the Plains Indians were some-what simple but were very reliable and something as small as arrowhead could be used in many different ways. One specific object I was interested in were the arrowheads they used to hunt with. Unlike today the Native Americans had to make everything they used to survive by hand so even something as small as an arrow head had to be made precisely with skill. The Plains Indians used several different types of arrowheads depending on the animal being hunted. Three different types of arrowheads used by the Plains Indians were stunner point, poison point, and bird point arrowheads. The stunner point arrowhead was used when the tribe didn't want to kill an animal but stun it for long enough to gain needed resources from the animal. An example of a stunner point arrowhead being used during the time of this tribe is that they would shoot an animal such as a eagle with the arrowhead leaving it temporarily stunned so they could take feathers from it without killing it. The other two arrow heads were made to be deadly. The poison point arrow head was typically soaked in rattle snake venom or decaying meat to poison a animal. The bird point arrowhead was a smaller arrowhead and it was used for smaller game such as birds or rabbits.

http://www.kawvalley.k12.ks.us/schools/rjh/marneyg/archived_projects/02_plains-history/02_jmckenzie_weapons.htm