OMAHA BOW AND ARROW MAKERS

By Francis La Flesche

[With 4 plates]

arrow, was the most effective weapon known to

The bow, with its

the North American Indians. This statement applies generally to all

the tribes living within the United States, and in particular, to
the plains tribes of the Siouan linguistic stock whose habitat for
centuries had been along the Missouri River from its mouth to its
headwaters, although some of the tribes belonging to this linguistic
group dwelt along the Mississippi River even as far south as the
mouth of the Arkansas River.
The style of the bow made by these tribes was generally the same.
That which was preferred and in common use by the people was a
bow that was curved more at the head, or above the grip, than at the
foot or below the grip. The expert bow makers say that the bow that
is curved equally at the top and bottom works as well as the pre-

ferred style, but the makers gave no explanation as to why one style
ispreferred to the other.
The ta-ko n 'mo n de, sinewed bow, was known to these tribes but was
seldom used. As a bow it was beautiful, being gracefully curved at
the top and the bottom as well as at the grip, but the experienced
user of the bow turns away from it because it is a " female bow " and
he wants a bow of a stronger sort. The sinewed back bow was not
fitted to stand rough usage; in the first place, the bow itself is made
slender in order to avoid clumsiness of appearance when the sinew
isadded and put on the back of the weapon in the second place the
;

glue used to hold together the fibers of the sinew can not withstand
dampness; when the bow is exposed to the rain, the glue and sinew
part company and the bow loses both its strength and its beauty.
Several years ago I wanted to secure an Omaha bow, but there
was none to be found in the tribe; for the weapon was no longer in
use. A
young man who knew of my fruitless search said to me:
" I could make a bow for you, but it would only be an imitation, not
a real bow. Any man who can whittle and scrape with a knife can
make something like a bow, but it takes a man skilled in the making
1 Reprinted from Annaes do XX Congresso Internacional de Amerieanistas, Rio de
Janeiro, 1922. Published 1924.
487
488 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926

of bows to make a bow as it should be made. There are only two

Omaha men living who can be called bow makers." The young man
gave me the names of these old men ; one was a stranger to me, but
the other one I knew very well.
The Omaha bow maker, like the medicine man, has to be cere-
monially approached, therefore I had to send a special messenger
to make known to him my wishes. The old man for whom I sent did
not come to see me for about two days, and when he did come he
brought a bow partially finished. He apologized for not coming at
once but explained that he thought I might be in a hurry to have
the work finished so he had started it before coming. He said " I :

feel honored in being your choice of a bow maker. I used to make

your father's bows. He always liked them long and heavy. There
are only two bow makers now living and I am one of them."
The old man was putting the finishing touches to the bow when the
other bow maker just happened to come in. My man handed the
smile and caressed it
finished bow to the visitor "who took it with a
by running his hands over its smooth surface. " What a beautiful
piece of wood it is." Then, after examining it critically, he said,

Fig. 1. — Omaha bow

"If it ever breaks it will be right here," pointing to a weak spot
midway between the grip and the top. " The rule is," continued the

visitor, " that where there has been a knot, that spot must be left
•
thick '. I notice another mistake, one that is commonly made the ;

neglect to blunt the edges of the nocks, for sharp edges endanger the
cord." He meant that the sharp edges of the nock wears the cord
by friction, causing it to break. My bow maker accordingly made
a few slight cuts with his sharp knife along the edges of the nocks
to blunt them, and the bow was finished. Then my bow maker asked
for a bit of grease. This I supplied and he greased the " breast " of
the bow at the upper and lower parts. The upper part he held over
the fire and when it became hot, he bent it with his foot and held it
until it cooled. " That was nicely done," the visitor said, " but I

would not put so much curve at the lower end of the bow."
From these two old men I learned that there were three choices of
wood for the bow, namely, the ash, the white elm, and the ironwood.
These three kinds of wood take on polish and do not " turn over " as
they expressed it, which means that they do not warp badly when
exposed to wet weather. The wood that the bow maker likes best to
work upon is the young ash that was killed by a prairie fire, because
the wood is then thoroughly seasoned and set, so that dampness and
 OMAHA BOW AND ARROW MAKERS LA FLESCHE 489

rain do not affect it. The elm and ironwood are cut green and hung
over the lodge fire to season, which There is one
is a slow process.

danger which the bow maker carefully guards against, and that is
a splitting by shrinkage. Experience had taught the men who loved
to make bows that there is one winter month during which it is safe

to cut green wood for making bows, and if I remember rightly it is

the " month of the return of the geese," that is, February.
The Osage and the Kansa had the best and the most costly bows.
This remark does not refer to the making but to the quality of the
wood. This wood was called by the Osage and Kansa, Mi n '-dse-sta,
smooth bow, and by the Omaha, Zho n -zi, yellowwood, the most
serviceable of any of the bowwoods. The yellowwood was called by
the French, bois d'arc, and was procured along the Arkansas River,
for the tree did not grow in the regions north of Kansas.
The bowstring or cord is made from the sinew taken from the
muscles lying on either side of the spine of the buffalo. The bow
maker's art does not include the making of the bowstring. There
are men who are skilled in the making of bowstrings who are em-
ployed to make them. The man whom I employed is still living at
this writing, close to the age of 90 years. This bowstring maker took
five strands from a sinew that I had procured and soaked them in
glue water over night. In the morning he squeezed the water out of
the sinew, then spliced together the ends of the strands, using fresh
glue, thus making one long strand. This he put in the sun to par-
tially dry, just enough to give the glue strength to hold together the
spliced parts of the sinew. The strand having dried to the desired
consistency, thebowstring maker formed a little loop exactly
in the middle for the upper nocks of the bow. He put this little
loop over the small end of a slender pole which he had planted
firmly in the ground for this purpose. He then grasped in each
hand an end of a strand and swung the two strands simultaneously.
With each swing he twisted the strands with his fingers. As the
strands were thus twisted and swung, they twined around each other
and by the movement of twisting and swinging the twist traveled
toward the man until the string thus formed came to the man's
fingers, when he tied a knot in the finished cord.
As the man strung the cprd to the bow he said " That bow was
:

made by E-shno n '-hun-ga I know the way he makes his bows. He

;

is one of the best bow makers." When the cord was put on the bow,

the man gave it a few pulls and the bow responded with a resonant
ring at each pull. The old man remarked, with a sigh " This takes :

me back to my buffalo-hunting days."

The wood for making the arrow shaft was chosen with as great
care as thewood used in making the bow. By long experience the
arrow makers had found two kinds of wood to be serviceable. These
490 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926

two were the ash and a species of dogwood. The latter had the same
name among the Omaha, Ponca, Osage, and the Kaw, related tribes,
Mo n '-ca-hi, meaning arrowwood. The sapling of this species of wood
was preferred because when in that stage of growth the wood is
straight and has but few knots.
The sapling of the ash is not used, for it has a large pith and the
wood is soft. However, the trunk of the mature ash is cut into the
proper length and split up for arrow shafts. Both the dogwood and
the ash are polishable and flexible. The wood is hard, but will bend
under strong pressure and not break.
If by accident a hunter loses his arrows, and neither ash nor dog-
wood is obtainable, he will use the sapling of the wild cherry tree
for his arrows; but this wood breaks easily and is used only in an
emergency.
When the arrow shafts are cut into the desired lengths and roughly
shaped, they are tied in a bunch and hung over the fireplace to season.
This process takes about 10 days to two weeks. Then the tedious
task of the final shaping begins. First the arrow maker carely ex-
amines each shaft; when he finds a crooked place, he greases the
spot and holds it over the fire to heat; he then quickly straightens
the crooked place and holds it securely until it cools. A
deer's horn
through which a hole has been drilled is used for this straightening
process.
The next process is the final shaping of the shaft. A good arrow
maker aims to make the shaft as nearly cylindrical as possible.
To accomplish this, he holds the shaft in his left hand between the
sandstone polishers, each piece grooved lengthwise, and gives the
stick a twirling motion by rolling one end of it back and forth on
his thigh with the palm of his right hand. He shifts the polishers
along the shaft in order to keep it uniform in size. When one end
is polished, he works in the same manner on the other end, until the

full length of the shaft is round, smooth, and uniform.

Then follows the making of the nock for the bowstring. In polish-
ing the top of the shaft the arrow maker works it down so that
the nock has a rounded appearance to give the archer a good grip.
The notch of the nock may be shaped either like a V or a U.
The next process is the grooving of the shaft. The arrow maker
measures the top part of the shaft with one of the feathers to be put
on it and begins his groove from the lower end of the feather. There
must always be three undulating or zigzag grooves. There has
been considerable discussion as to the meaning of these grooves.
Some writers have said that the zigzag lines mean lightning, others
that these grooves were made for the blood of a wounded animal to
flow through. An explanation was given to me when I was a boy by
an old Omaha groove maker, which is so simple and practical that
 OMAHA BOW AND ARROW MAKERS LA FLESCHE 491 ,

it has always impressed me as being the true explanation of the

making of grooves on the arrow shafts.
One day I went home from school and found that my father had
been taken sick in the midst of his preparations for the annual
summer tribal buffalo hunt. He had finished polishing and straight-
ening the shafts and shaping the nocks, but he was too weak to
groove the arrow shafts. As this was a necessary part in making the
arrow he had sent for U'-shi-wa-the (Quail) who was a very skillful
workman in grooving arrow shafts. The quality of the fee my
father had given for the work to be done put the old man in very
good spirits; he talked as he worked, pointing out the defects in
some of the shafts and mentioning the names of the men who in the
past were skilled in grooving arrow shafts, but who had departed
for the spirit land. Without pausing in his talk he picked a shaft,
put on it the grooving tool; with a swift movement he deftly cut
the first groove, then he cut the second one, then the third one and
the threadlike shavings fell to the floor. Looking up at my father
I said " Da-di, what is he making those grooves for ? " My father
:

smiled, and addressing the old man said " Father, tell the boy, for
:

he may be making arrows some day." The old man picked up a

shaft and said: "My grandson, your father spent much time in
selecting these saplings for his arrows; he sorted out those he thought
to be perfect, but there is no perfect wood; there is always some
fault in it. Now look at this one I have in my hand, there was a
sharp bend which he had hard work in straightening, but when I
put on it the groove, thus, and thus, and thus, the shaft will not roll
back to its natural imperfection, but will remain straight; that's why
these grooves are made."
The next process is the feathering of the shaft, and it may not be
out of place here to continue the story of Quail, the old Omaha arrow
groover. So pleased was he with his fee that he offered to finish the
arrows for my father. He also allowed me to take a very humble
part in the work. I was requested to bring to him a bag containing
glue, sinew, and feathers; also a pan of warm water. I started a lit-
tle fire to heat the glue and to soften it. The old man took the pan
ofwarm water and put into it the sinew which he had shredded into
many threads; he also put into the pan the glue which was attached
to one end of a stick nearly as long as an arrow shaft.
As man examined the feathers, which were owl feathers,
the old
he remarked " a bird of night." The feathers were from the wings,
the stems were split, the pithy part scraped with a knife, leaving the
aftershaft clean like parchment. He next tested the threads of
sinew, taking up one strand from which he squeezed the water then
wiping his hands, took up a split feather, put the top end against the
shaft, aftershaft of the feather downward, so as to overlap a little
492 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926

the bulb-shaped nock; taking a strand of sinew, he wound one end

once around the shaft and the feather near the nock. He then took
the other end of the sinew between his teeth and holding the strand
taut, he heated the glue a little over the fire and rubbed it on the
sinew; he then put the second feather on the shaft which he gave
one turn and the sinew held the feather he treated the third feather
;

in the same manner then he thinned the end of the strand of sinew
;

by scraping it with a knife and putting the thinned end of the strand
around the shaft; he smoothed it down with his finger. Then he
dipped the sinew in a little pile of white powder, made of burnt
gypsum, for the purpose of cleaning, whitening, and drying it.
Quail held up the arrow shaft with the drooping feathers and said
to me " My grandson, this sinew will do two things at the same
:

time, it will hold the ends of the feathers on the shaft and support
the nock of the arrow so that the bowstring will not split it." He
then glued the under part of the aftershaft of one of the feathers
and neatly stuck it on the arrow shaft, the other two feathers he
treated in the same way, and all three feathers lay neatly on the
arrow shaft, equi-distant apart.
The old man, addressing my father, said " My son, I see that you
:

have two kinds of the little ornamental feathers for the lower part
of the feathers, one white and the other red, which shall I put on? "
" The red," my father replied, and the old man remarked, "Ah the !

color of the red dawn." Quail took a shred of the soaked sinew,
squeezed the water out of it, wound one end once around the arrow
shaft and the quill part of the feathers, near the web, then taking
between his teeth the other end of the sinew, he glued it, then put a
little red downy feather in the space between the large feathers and

gave the arrow shaft a slight turn; in the second space he put a little
red feather, gave the arrow shaft another slight turn, and treated
the third space in the same manner, then quickly covered the quill
part of the arrow feathers with the glued sinew which he smoothed
down with his finger; after that he dipped the sinew in the pile of
powdered gypsum. Then, turning to me, he said " My grandson,
:

always overlap the ends of the quills with glued sinew when you
make arrows, and don't forget to dip the sinew in the white powder.
Be neat, always, in your work."
The old man held the arrow at arm's length to examine his work,
while his- face brightened with pleasure. Then, speaking to my
father, he said " My son, the glue works quickly, would you mind
:

telling me what you made it of ? " My father replied " The glue
:

was made from the shell of a soft-shelled turtle."

The slits for the shanks of the arrowheads, which were made of
iron, had already been made in the shafts, and the gluing of shanks,
 OMAHA BOW AND AREOW MAKERS LA FLESCHE 493

inserting them in the slits, and fastening them with glued sinew, took
the old man but a short time to finish.
Quail then, speaking to my father, said " My son, I am about to
:

"
trim the feathers, will you have the leaves (webs) narrow or wide?
" Make them narrow," my father replied. "Ah " the old man !

remarked, " I see you know the principle, the narrow leaves hold
the arrow steady, the broad leaves will cause the arrow to make an
undulating movement as it takes its flight."
The old man sharpened his knife very carefully, laid an arrow,
nock toward him, along the edge of a board so that the web of the
feather lapped over the edge he then trimmed the web, giving it a
;

straight line. All the other webs he treated in the same manner.
Again addressing my father, the old man said " What about the :

marking, my son? " " Black on the shaft," my father replied, " the
length of a finger joint, along the lower part of the feather, and the
upper part red, to the nock." " Night and day," the old man re-
marked, " the symbol of precision." From a small package the
arrow-maker poured into the shell of a fresh water mussel the black
coloring material, and from another package he poured into another
shell the red pigment. Into these shells he poured glue water and
stirred the mixture with a stick. Then using the tip of his index
finger for a painting brush he first put on the black paint, and then
the red. When the paint, which had a glossy appearance, had dried,
the old man gathered the arrows together in a bunch and handed
them to my father, who caressed them by passing his hands over
them; then, with a pleased expression he lifted the arrows up and
said to me :
" Look at these, my son, and let me tell you that a neatly
finished arrow is the pride of a good archer !
" A smile rippled over
the wrinkled face of the arrow-maker, as he nodded his head with
pleasure at the compliment.
The bow and the arrow figure prominently in the religious rites
of some of the plains tribes of the American Indians. In Osage
mythology, the bow was the gift of the moon to the people, and the
arrow a gift from the sun, taken from one of its rays. In three of
the tribal rituals of the Osage, two arrows, one painted black to
represent the night, and the other red, to represent day, are set in
flight (figuratively),by a bow also painted black and red, toward the
setting sun. These two arrows, thus set in flight at an initiation of
a candidate into the mysteries of certain tribal rites, not only sym-
bolize the endless recurrence of night and day, but the flight of these
mystic arrows is also equivalent to the Initiator saying to the candi-
date " Your life, represented by your descendants, shall be as the
:

night and day, endlessly recurring. Among the Omaha tribe seven
arrows were used as symbols in an annual ceremony. Each gens of
494 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926

the seven principal gentes of the tribeis represented by one of these

mystic arrows, which are used to foretell what will happen, good or
evil, to each gens during the year following the ceremony. These
divining arrows also stand for the continuity of each gens through
its natural increase. The members of the gens to whom is entrusted
the keeping of these sacred articles are privileged to name their sons,
" Mo n
'-pi-zhi," Bad Arrow; this name has been seldom used. The
word " pi-zhi " or bad, is not used here in its ordinary sense, but
refers to the mysterious characters of the divining arrow.
Smithsonian Report, 1926. — La Flesche Plate 1

Last of the Omaha Bow Makers

Smiths 1926.— La F i
Plate 2

The Ash Bow Shown in this Picture was Made by E. Shnon-honga.

the Last Omaha Bow Maker. This Specimen is in the California
State University
s
Plate 3

Xo'-Ka Setting to Flight the Magic Arrows

Smithsonian Report, 1926.— La Flesche Plate 4

Arrow Release of Omaha Indians