Posted by: lemmod | March 31, 2010

American Indian Weaponry

When I was younger, one item I generally associated with American Indians was the use of arrowheads and their bows and arrows. Upon remembering this, I decided to do a little exploration online about the different types of weaponry American Indians would use. I soon discovered that American Indians generally used only a couple weapons which include bows and arrows, axes, tomahawks, lances, and spears. The bow and arrow is the most common known weapon and could be used for both short and long range to kill enemies or to hunt animals. Arrowheads, which are the front part of the arrow that actually penetrated the target, would be made out of stone, metal, bone, or antler. Most arrows however were made from stone or flint. An interesting fact about the bow and arrow is that it could be said that an inexperienced warrior had the ability to fire about 20 arrows before a person could reload their musket and get a second shot off. Other than the bow and arrow, throwing tomahawks would be used for long range. Similar to a hatchet, tomahawks had a stone, iron, or brass head and were generally thrown at a target in order to injure it. A third weapon American Indians used was the axe. Extremely similar to a tomahawk except shaped a little differently and heavier, axes could be used as a short ranged weapon for heavy blows against an opponent. The last weapons used by American Indians were the lances and spears. These weapons were useful mostly to those who rode on horses and targeted enemies. With the long length of these weapons stretching longer than the individuals body using them and the long sharp stone or iron end, the weapons easily stretched to penetrate a targets body. Today, few of these weapons are still used except for the bow and arrow which is rather popular for hunting small to medium sized game or a hatchet which is sometimes used for cutting up logs.

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