Arrowhead hunt today at a pasture near Leon Creek.............

[Kelley (Texas)]

This was a good day, just a tab warm, but still a good day. I decided to drive out to a pasture near Leon Creek and look for some Indian arrowheads. I filled the canteen with cool water, put new batteries in the camera, and grabbed the snake stick...away I went! Many arrowheads have been found in this area these past few years and today was no exception. The pasture was dry which is good because it is easier to spot the arrowheads.

This is the pasture where I hunted today. Talking about it being dry, notice the dried up stock tank? I hunted in the area behind the tree all the way to the small creek in the background.
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After hunting for almost two hours, it was time to call it for the day...just too hot to continue. My favorite artifact found today was the small grind stone. Not pictured is a Indian hide scraper that I lost somewhere in the yard between the truck and the rear patio deck where I took this picture. I will go look for it after I post this story. I placed a dime with the artifacts to give you an idea of their sizes.
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I made mention of grabbing my snake stick and wonder if you folks know about it. A snake stick is a round stick, often a discarded broom stick, with a headless nail in the end of it. When you think that you have spotted an arrowhead, you use the snake stick to move the stone...keeps you from having to bend over each time you see a suspected arrowhead. It also serves as a defense against snakes in the event you encounter one that is aggressive and wants to fight rather than peacefully leave the area. Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas)

 

[Ron J]

n/t

 

[Micheal_R]

n/t

 

[Cupajo]

Had a "dewberry hunting stick" that was essential for parting the vines when picking berries.

Hands never go where eyes can't see all around the area in snake country!

The berry picking was along irrigation canals and ditches and it was always overgrown with shrubbery and vines (perfect habitat for small critters and snakes hungry for them).

CJ

PS As a teen I found a few arrow heads along the bays where there was no stone for making them. The shoreline Indians traded shells, fish, and game for them with inland tribes so I'm told. The smaller points are often called "bird points", but I'm sure they were just fine for about any game as they were razor sharp and could easily slice through any soft skinned creature.

 

[TexasCharley]

The small points, the ones we called 'bird points' when we were kids, were actual arrow points & date from about 1000 AD to the early 1800s. After that the Indians started using iron. On any raid they'd break any barrels they found for the hoops to make arrow points, which on the Texas frontier at least, were called 'spikes.' The large points, the ones the size of your thumb or slightly smaller, are 'dart points' & precede arrows. A dart was a somewhat flexible 'spear' about 5' to 6' long, fletched like an arrow, but thrown with a throwing-stick. We call that thing an atl-atl these days because that's what the Australian aborigines, the last people on earth to use the things, called it. These were used all the way up to about 1000 AD, but you don't find them after that. Strangely enough, roughly 1000 AD is when Leif Erikkson was establishing his colony in Canada & Madoc ap Owen Gwinneth was establishing the Welsh colony somewhere around Mobile Bay. While the Norse used bows they weren't known as great archers, but the Welsh invented the 'English' longbow.

TexasCharley

 

[George-CT]

is really interesting also. Imagine all the use it got to make it that way. Sure is dry in those parts. Trees seem deep enough to get water but not much else. Who can figure this weather. Here its the coolest on record. it reached here 90 here for 2 days on April 28 this year. So far, that was summer. The rest its been rain, or very cool temps in the upper 60's and 70's. Looks like this month we will get actual summer temps which for here is 80's with a few 90's in there. Been very few in the water here so not much to hunt for for new targets.

I have found the shell heaps along the shoreline, big ones from the Nehantic Indians where they stayed in the summer, but never found an arrow head there. Did find some pottery in the dirt about a foot down, and also was with a guy who picked up a nice stone axe head. But he knew what he was looking at and they had just pushed a road thru there for power lines so it had turned up the first. Soon after that, they made it off limits to everyone. as the land now belongs to Dominian Power Company.

I saw some of your framed arrow heads one time in a photo. You have a beautiful collection of them. I keep looking for them when in the woods in washed out hills etc, but so far, no luck for me, but I'd say its for from me not knowing how to spot one then them not being there. Along the shoreline here they had summer camps all over to get clams, fish etc. A lot cooler there in summer than inland where I am.

How are you guys making out with the cows there with the lack of water and them being out to pasture? Do you have to bringin feed and water? I'm imagining Indians camped there or hunting in the field you have pictured. My perception of Indians is from watching old cowboy and Indian movies from the 40's and 50's. Stuff like charge at Red River, Tom Mix etc.... I'm sure Hollywood changes it to fit their movie.

Thanks for post.

George-CT

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

because the Indians gained use of firearms. Many of the iron arrowheads were made from the iron rims of the wagons in use at the time. The small arrowheads that folks usually call "bird points" date from approximately 1400 A.D.

Something interesting...Indians started making their teepees from canvass instead of animal hides after the early 1800's. When the sailing ships reached the shores of the New World, they replaced the worn out sails and the Indians grabbed them for their teepees. Shortly after, traders started selling canvass to the Indians. Kelley (Texas)

 

[Paul (AR)]

n/t

 

[Ron J]

n/t

 

[TexasCharley]

I've gpt the full file of Western Publications' reprints of the original J. Marvin Hunter Frontier Times. A lot of the stories were written in the '20s & early '30s by the people who experienced the incidents. I'm finding 'removal of arrow spikes' all the way up into the 1870s. Incidentally, those iron arrowheads were far worse than flint. Barrel hoop iron, which is what was mostly used because it was easier to work with than thicker stuff, would often bend inside a wound, making removal very messy indeed.

Yes, the Indians did have guns--but they didn't have all that many guns. In addition, to quote from BG Nelson A. Miles, "If the Indian had ever realized what a rear sight is for the Indian Wars would have been much longer and bloodier." It appeared, sometimes, that they thought it was the noise that killed.

There were some Indian expert marksmen, one of whom--and he may have been a renegade white man--shot from Sharpshooter Hill on the Little Bighorn battlefield, targeting Reno's & Benteen's men. Fortunately, there weren't that many.

Herman Lehmann, who was captured at the age of 10 or so & lived with the Comanches until well into his 20s--he was adopted & became a Comanche warrior--was sort of 'Webster on Indians' after he was returned to his family. He was asked how the Comanches made flint arrowheads. By the time Herman was captured nearly all tribes had abandoned flint weapons for iron, so Herman didn't know--but he wasn't gonna let on he didn't know. He said they heated the flint in a fire & then dripped cold water on it to flake it. Try that & you'll get a belly full of tiny, very sharp--& very hot--flint flakes. The flint all but explodes when cold water is dripped on it when it's hot.

Texas Charley

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

When you consider the fact that the American Indian had used chert or flint arrowheads dating back 10,000 years, I would consider that the forty or fifty years that they used the iron arrowhead to be a short period of time. True that the Indians used iron barrel bands, but they also quite often used the iron rims from the wagon wheels...also, they still continued to use stone arrowheads during this period of time too.

You make mention that the Indians had expert marksmen during that famous battle where General Custer was killed. History has proven that the Indians had far superior firearms during that battle and they knew how to use them. Custer made a mistake attacking that Indian camp after he split his troops especially knowing that he was facing a larger force than first envisioned, and then when he was one of the first ones killed while approaching the river for crossing over into the village, everything became disorganized...it was over before it really started.

I read the book about Herman Lehmann and his brother, how they were captured by the Apache Indians. Later he killed the medicine man and ran for his life, finally joining a Comanche Indian tribe where he remained until they were sent to the reservation. Later he was reunited with his white family and he wrote a book about his life with the Indians.

Here are some of the Indian arrowheads hanging on the wall in my study...they are from Arizona all the way to Georgia, up north all the way to Maryland. Most of them were found by me, with maybe ten percent being given to me by kinfolks or friends. There in not one arrowhead in my collection that was purchased. I have been collecting arrowheads since six years of age, finding them in the plowed fields after my Grandfather and Father prepared the fields for crops. There are more hanging on the wall in the study that I did not photograph...as well as other rooms in the house in addition to some being stored in boxes.
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Oh! I almost forgot to mention that Indians made arrowheads out of other metals too...long before they discovered that the iron metal from barrel hoops and wagon wheels could be made into arrowheads. One of the metals that were often used was raw copper. This is a photo of some copper arrowheads that I found in the mid 1980's. I can not disclose where they were found due to an agreement with the property owner. They were not found in Texas. If you are interested in copper arrowheads, you will enjoy doing a Google search for the Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma...mystery surrounds the Indians that lived in the Spiro Mounds.

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In closing, I would like to make mention of how happy that I am to have the gentleman, TexasCharley, posting on this Forum. I have always loved history and I hope to learn a few things from him about Texas history. Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas)

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

One person can erect a normal size teepee. Three poles are tied together at the top and then raised into position...all the other poles are only resting against these three poles. When properly anchored with a rope tied at the top center, then anchored into the ground below, it can withstand winds reaching hurricane force. Open the flaps at the top, roll the bottom up six inches and you will cool the teepee on a hot summer day. You can keep it warm in the winter with a fire. When available, Lodge Pole Pine trees were the preferred wood poles to use. Kelley (Texas)

 

[George-CT]

I remember a picture of some of them a long time ago on the forums mounted in those box frames. Really an interesting collection.
I see some of the axe like ones and scrapers there also. Having started at age six, there is a lifetime of collecting that is really impressive. I never knew they made them out of copper also. Do you know if the mined it themselves or or collect it along the way from the settlers headed west?

Thanks for post.

George-CT

 

[Kelley (Texas)]

that I have several hundren issues of the Frontier Times...some are duplicates. If you are missing copies, let me know and I will see if I have a duplicate. I just went out to the garage and I have several boxes full of them. Kelley (Texas)

[attachment 133171 FrontierTimes7-17-09.jpg]

 

[Cupajo]

A very impressive collection Fred!

Well done Friend,

CJ

 

[TexasCharley]

Some of the most beautiful 'arrowheads'--actually dart points--I ever saw were made of Jasper. I've seen a few made of agate. Mostly they seem to have been ground rather than chipped. They may have had ceremonial use. They also used obsidian, which can take a much sharper edge than flint or even properly-tempered steel.

The Indians at Little Big Horn had repeating weapons, most of which were Winchester M1866s, not Henrys. Every time an archaeologist finds a .44 rimfire case with two firing pin impressions on it, it's called a Henry round. There were fewer than 12,000 Henrys ever made. There were over 180,000 Winchester M1866s made. The Henry had a double-ended firing pin because the distribution of priming compound in rimfire cases was sort of iffy. B. Tyler Henry reasoned that striking the rim simultaneously in spots opposite each other gave a greater chance of hitting the rim where there actually was priming compound. When Oliver Winchester took over Henry's operation he used the Henry action unchanged, but added a way to load from the breech rather than having to pull the follower up to the muzzle, and a wooden handguard so you didn't fry your fingers in rapid fire.

Don't make too much of Indian marksmanship. That was get-in-amongst-'em nose-to-nose fighting. It's fairly easy to hit a man-sized target at 20 feet without having to aim. You simply point the weapon at that range. At 50 or 100 yds you actually have to aim.

The catch is, Custer had been warned about the size of the village. His scouts were following trails so cut up with travois poles they looked like they'd been plowed! Mitch Bouyer warned him he didn't have the forces to take on an encampment that big. So did Curley Crow. He called them 'old women.'

Apparently what Custer was trying to do was use Reno as a decoy force while he circled the village to capture the women and children. He knew once the attack was made on the village a few warriors would be detailed to get the women and children to safety out the other end. He'd done this successfully before & knew once he had the women & children, the fight would go out of the main body of warriors. However, there were between 5,000 & 6,000 Indians--Lakota, Cheyenne, & a half-dozen other Sundance tribes. It was the biggest Sundance gathering in history. At least 1,000, possibly as many as 2,000 of the Indians in that encampment were warriors. Custer had about 350 men. When Reno hit the village he threw a rock into a hornet's nest & the hornets came out in all directions. It's flat a miracle the Indians didn't mop up Reno & Benteen before leaving. That would have left only one surviving company of the 7th. It was on Reconstruction duty in Louisiana.

TexasCharley

 

[Royal]

Willy's right arm to have been able to join you. I really enjoy hunting them. I have no idea where to hunt them in Michigan but know there has to be plenty of places. Lots of indians here.

Nice pictures and finds buddy

 

[Wayne in BC]

i remember you posting some pics before but not showing that many. You must have a very good eye for it, Mikie is like that too with a trained eye. My eyes got burned out from too many of the wrong kind of magazines when i was a kid

 

[Royal]

n/t

 

[Royal]

heck of a grip!! Same mags?