Beautifully detailed full-page pen-and-ink drawings give dimensions, decorations, and construction details on more than a hundred historic bows, scores of arrows, and two dozen quivers.

The authors bring together more than 100 exceptional archery pieces, with detailed full-page pen-and-ink drawings giving dimensions, decoration and construction details. Line drawings and maps.

Native Americans and their elegant weapons have provided an undeniable mystique for archers, history buffs, collectors, and anyone who appreciates traditional skills. For the first time, authors Allely and Hamm have brought together the most exceptional archery pieces from eastern tribes such as the Mohegan, Mohawk, Cherokee, Seminole, Chippewa, and Winnebago. Beautifully detailed full-page pen-and-ink drawings give dimensions, decorations, and construction details on more than a hundred historic bows, scores of arrows, and two dozen quivers. The running commentary is drawn from research conducted in museums around the world, and gives insights into who used these instruments and how. This pathbreaking and comprehensive book will strongly appeal to all those with an abiding interest in Native Americans and archery.

A comprehensive account of the history and construction of these unique hunting tools.

No one knows for certain just when the bow and arrow came into use in America, but they were in use from the far North to the tip of South America when Europeans first arrived. Over the hemisphere the equipment ranged from very poor to excellent, with the finest bows of all being made in the Northwest of North America. Some of these bows rivaled the ancient classic bow in beauty of design and workmanship. The attitudes of whites toward Indian archers and their equipment have ranged from the highest of praise with mythical feats rivaling those of William Tell and Robin Hood-–o mockery and derision for the Indians' short, "deformed" bows and small arrows. The Laubins have found most of the popular conceptions of Indian archery to be erroneous-as are most of the preconceived notions about Indians—and in this book they attempt to correct some of these false impressions and to give a true picture of this ancient art as practiced by the original Americans. Following an introduction and history of Indian archery are chapters on comparison of bows, bow making and sinewed bows, horn bows, strings, arrows, quivers, shooting, medicine bows, Indian crossbows, and blowguns. Those wishing to learn something about the use of archery tackle by American Indians, something of the ingenuity associated with its manufacture and maintenance, and something about the importance of archery in everyday Indian life will find in this book a wealth of new, valuable, and important information.

Gifts from the Thunder Beings examines North American Aboriginal peoples’ use of Indigenous and European distance weapons in big-game hunting and combat. Beyond the capabilities of European weapons, Aboriginal peoples’ ways of adapting and using this technology in combination with Indigenous weaponry contributed greatly to the impact these weapons had on Aboriginal cultures. This gradual transition took place from the beginning of the fur trade in the Hudson’s Bay Company trading territory to the treaty and reserve period that began in Canada in the 1870s. Technological change and the effects of European contact were not uniform throughout North America, as Roland Bohr illustrates by comparing the northern Great Plains and the Central Subarctic—two adjacent but environmentally different regions of North America—and their respective Indigenous cultures. Beginning with a brief survey of the subarctic and Northern Plains environments and the most common subsistence strategies in these regions around the time of contact, Bohr provides the context for a detailed examination of social, spiritual, and cultural aspects of bows, arrows, quivers, and firearms. His detailed analysis of the shifting usage of bows and arrows and firearms in the northern Great Plains and the Central Subarctic makes Gifts from the Thunder Beings an important addition to the canon of North American ethnology.