I'm a frequent Bowsite poster but rarely on the Leatherwall. However, it seemed much more appropriate to post this here than on Bowsite. I'm looking for someone with the necessary skills to build me a single arrow that is as similar as possible to a traditional Native American arrow. Here's the backstory and motivation.

A few years ago while duck hunting I set up on the rocky beach of a small island I'd never hunted before. Dawn came but the birds did not. It was still an enjoyable morning with a beautiful sunrise. After I collected my decoys I took down my layout blind to put it back in the boat. Under my layout, where I had been for the past number of hours was a perfect small arrowhead. I reflected on the hunter of years past who paddled his canoe out to this very island and likely had a more productive hunt, with stick and string, than I had with all my modern tools.

I've always had it in my mind to harvest a duck in this same general area and have a mount done that somehow incorporates the arrowhead. I've settled on a "dead" mount in a shadowbox that will incorporate a traditional Native American reed decoy and an arrow built in a similar style to a Native American arrow, using my found arrowhead.

I recently received a reed decoy from Stillwater Paiute Decoys, so just need an arrow made and then to harvest a few acceptable ducks this coming season.

If you can help with building a Native American style arrow with my arrowhead, I'll be happy to pay you. Hopefully someone is interested. Here are a few pictures.

The reed decoy and the arrowhead.

I sent you a PM. Steve

Great work on your decoy

PS when I was much younger I used to live work and hunt in Piute country in the Owens Valley. one of my best friends, Troy Burdik was a Paiute that lived on the reservation in Big Pine. I got to see quite a few authentic Piute arrows that were really old. The heads are all made out of obsidian, and the arrows are native reed with forshafts.

Awesome decoy and idea.

Overland, I attended the PBS dinner and auction in Pittsburgh a good few years ago. At that time Sterling Holdbrook (regularly featured in TBM) built and donated a replica of a Native American arrow to the auction. I bid on the arrow but didn't win and so I contacted Sterling and he made one for me. Might be worth a try. Mine in proudly displayed in my office.

Rick

Nice work.

"Paiute" rather

Im interested. I do not take money for period correct Native American arrows. My work on arrows are as period correct as can be. Ill drop a couple pictures on here. Pm me if you continue your interest.

These are Tonkin cane, so theyre not period correct. Trade points. All Arrows are protected With a mixture of Bear and Beaver grease mixed with bees wax.

James.... New york eh? What part?

Kool stuff right there, Love the decoy. John

Thanks for the positive responses. Dale, those look perfect. I'll send you a PM. Iwander, I'll reply to your PM as well.

I wanted to post a follow-up since a number of folks took an interest in this thread both on here and through PM. Dale came through in a big way and I received an arrow in the mail from him today.

After discussing with Dale I mailed him my arrowhead. There was some initial panic as he was not able to find the arrowhead in the package I mailed him. I had wrapped it in tissue paper, then bubble wrap, then tape, and so on. There was a box within a box. It was such a small arrowhead that he didn't see it when he opened the package and texted me in a panic that it must have fallen out during shipping. Thankfully this was immediately remedied upon further unpacking but it did give me a fright for a few moments!

The arrow was made using a Red Osier tree branch, seasoned, then scraped using flint. It was further prepared by heating it over a fire, dipping it in elderberry juice, and finally sealed with a mixture of bee wax, beaver grease, and black bear fat.

The arrowhead is attached to the shaft by whitetail deer sinew, hafted with pine pitch, ashes, and deer scat (heated together to form the glue). The sinew was dried and hammered by rock, pulled into threads, and soaked in water. The fletchings are wild turkey secondary wing feathers, wrapped onto the shaft using a fine dyed thread fashioned from flax seed.

This amazing attention to detail and style adds appeal to the arrow and my future display much beyond the aesthetics of the arrow itself. I'll post again when I make more progress on my display. Thank you again, Dale.

Would you please show and explain more detail of the nock. I cut self nocks in cane and shoots but that looks different. Thanks. >>>>------> Ken

Hats off to Dale for exercising the spirit of archery and history. Very generous.

Overland, nice project.

I used to know them, but I had to look up the nations of the Iroquois Federation; Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca, and later the Tuscarora people.

That is sharp

nice looking

The use of beeswax and flax on a Native style arrow seem at odds with the theme.

I wonder how old the head was.

Cool.

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of work and attention to detail that goes into making something like this entirely from nature's raw materials, much of which we simply see as waste (e.g., deer scat as an ingredient in glue). I often wonder how anyone figured out what works. I mean, did someone accidentally stumble on the deer scat ingredient or was it an intentional decision to try it? Same with brain tanning hides - how on earth did that idea ever come to life? I know the answers to that are lost to time, but the depths of human ingenuity just astounds me.

I’m on the road until later today. I’ll try quickly to answer some questions. I am no expert on recreating these, nor one on knowledge of local native peoples. TLH- actually any scat containing grass would work. I’ve used rabbit droppings before. One could break up cattails or dried up weeds and use the dried remnants of chaff?

Runner- the only one I’ve seen, the waterfowl arrow was completely different from game arrows. If a hunter Is along creek bank, knowing that ducks congregate on the sunny side of an island or an area offering some sort of protection, I would think any arrow becomes a duck arrow:)

The flax which is common in Pa could have been stinging nettle, or back sinew. I just didnt know enough about this area of the Hudson River Valley. If you want to see remarkable, try beating the heck out of flax breaking it down, the cleaning of the thread, and spinning it with crude tools lol Natives were fantastic at this, chubby white guys not so much lol. Actually the thread I used is the only modern item used.

This style of head was considered common up to the mid-1400’s. Common to the area, literally within a couple miles, where it was found by a hunter from another era. Remarkably that little head could’ve been taken anywhere downstream for miles upon miles from turbulent rivers by every storm for several hundred years! I would bet the original owner of that head would be happy to see it honored as such by a hunter of another era- not because of the arrow display, but the fact it is cherished.

Thanks for the nice comments and Thanks to James for trusting another bow hunter with such a prized possession! Dale(on the IPhone )

TLH i asked Rev. Stacy Groscup many years ago how they figured things out and he said the great spirit told them.

Hats off to you sir. Very well done. John

2 bears I as a rule shoot all the arrows I make, except for authentic heads. So what I do is I run a small String groove, too small to mount a string, and provide a bit of a bulb on the end. Again, I couldnt find an Esopus arrow picture on the net.

I will wrap sinew around the nock area before deepening the nock or leave as is for display as this Shawnee arrow

I was assuming flax was a term being used correctly, not as a substitute for "fiber of some sort".

" i asked Rev. Stacy Groscup many years ago how they figured things out and he said the great spirit told them"

I hope that was tongue in cheek.

GLAD of the PHOTOS! I LUV to see stuff like this! BLESSED BE!

What a great way to honor your find,enjoyed reading this post ! Thanks for sharing.

Dave

Runner We have a local Festival called Flax Scutching Festival held yearly. Is starts with drying the plant, breaking down the fibers, separating, then spinning With spinning wheels into thread, mine looks like yarn lol Im not sure of that area, to know how prominent flax is in that area. Bowstrings were also made of flax, but I found it weak compared to stinging nettle.

Oh, I know it's been brought over and planted. I just meant it wasn't likely to be authentic to a Native arrow back then.

Later on of course the use of non Native materials would be pretty common. Paint, beads etc.

There is a really great page on Facebook that has photographs of museum artifacts, as much as I use Hamm’s book, the drawings although superb, dont do justice To the photos. Together they compliment each other. Plus you can adk questions on the page.

Its called American Indian Archery

I suppose it depends on what point in Native American history one wants to represent. Can be a rather broad term.

Very well done.

Thanks Dale Hojas For the extremely interesting thread,all your facts, and research. Thanks again for the picture of the nock and your answer. >>>>-----> Ken

Thanks folks!

Very interesting and thanks for all the sharing.

Nice

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