Sheep Eater Shoshone

[jack farrell]

Bede; With all respect to Dr. Grayson, I am not aware of any NA crafting which includes drilling lines of holes and chopping out the space in between. Possibly Bert did not have a band saw or did not trust that technique.

There is a great distance between saying it could have been done, and showing it was done. If there is any indication that this technique was used please post it. Otherwise please let this misconception die a natural death.

My epilogue on the Shoshone is a story from the Thermopolis museum written well after the facts.

There is a place not far from Dubois called Crow Heart. This is how the place got its name.

In the 1860s the Shoshone had control of the Wind River valley under their chief Washakie. In that summer a large party of Crow Indians under chief Big Robber came to hunt on Shoshone hunting grounds. Shoshone scouts reported the incursion to Washakie who sent a messenger to the Crows that they should move east over the mountains. The messenger's wife went along to show that the meeting was intended to be peaceful. Big Robber killed the messenger and sent the wife back with the message that the Crows would hunt wherever they wanted.

Washakie sent to his allies, the Bannocks, for re-enforcements and moved to engage the Crows, who had come ready with many of their finest and bravest warriors. A battle ensued which lasted five days. Many on both sides were killed and wounded without any resolution. At that Washakie sent word that the two chiefs should do battle alone with the winner taking control of the area.

The respective armies kept a great distance to ensure no interference and Big Robber came out on his white stallion while Washakie rode the great bay given to him by chief Joseph of the Nez Pierce. Each carried a long lance and shield of the thick neck skin of a bison bull. The dust was thick from the battle when a gasp went out as Washakie's stallion was seen to go to his knees. But he rose to continue the fight and after some time Washakie emerged to rejoin his fellows carrying the heart of the Crow chief on the tip of his lance. He took it because of the bravery of his opponent. Washakie did not scalp or mutilate Big Robber, as was his right, and did not allow the other Shoshones to do so.

The Crows took their fallen and withdrew to over the mountain.

What is not part of the story is this; Almost surely, a celebration would have taken place in the Shoshone village in which the Crow heart would have been prepared and shared by all the combatants so as to capture the bravery of the fallen chief. And the scalping and mutilation did not occur so to aswage the grief of the Crows.

Chief Washakie lived to be almost 100 years old.

[Bede]

Jack,
Dr Grayson did have access to a bandsaw, but he found the blade would wander in the horn and was not possible to control precisely. This was the reason that he moved onto other methods.

Regarding the drilling of holes to cut difficult materials, this is an ancient technique that developed in the stone ages on many continents. It was a standard method for cutting slots in jade and other hard materials. I believe the is evidence of it use in Siberia and Mexico. I was suggesting that it could be a technique used by these particular people and I believe like you it should be supplemented by proof, particularly a partially worked horn would be a good example. My experience with sheep horn is that it much harder to work than buffalo horn and any method that gave more precision in the cut would be worthwhile.

If I were to pick a method that I thought most likely, it would be scraping a groove with a stone point, but that is subject to the idea that the bows were made in the pre-contact period.

As to Grayson's knowledge of Native American archery, he had many friends among many nations over a long period of time. He talked with them, watched them make bows and arrows, purchased some for his collection and duplicated them using the original techniques. I have seen experienced Native Americans praise his bows to his face only to find that he was taught by their grandfathers.

[Lee Slikkers]

Just received the Sheepeaters DVD that Tom Lucas was in showing how he builds those Bighorn Sheep horn bows. His method of boiling (or setting in a geothermal spring) looks fairly simple and effective. It only took a sharp flake of obsidian to carve a groove in that horn...time consuming, sure but pretty simple.

I really enjoyed the DVD and now am on the hunt for the ever elusive set of Bighorn Sheep horns.

[jack farrell]

Let me repeat the technique for bandsawing sheep and other horns. We are not trying to take a precise slab off the horn, ready to use. far from it. Another useful technique of the bandsaw is to waste large areas of unwanted material. What others are doing laboriously with a drill can be done effortlessly with a bandsaw in a mere fraction of the time.

Here is an exercise in sawing in a spiral. Start with a large dowel or similar object like a section of closet pole. The trick of sawing any curved object on this saw is to ANTICIPATE THE CURVE and set up the cut. Secondly, when a curve is not cutting properly STOP IMMEDIATELY, BACK UP AND PROCEED SETTING UP THE ANTICIPATED CUT. The just cut kerf will actually facilitate restarting.

Now cut the dowel into a twist using this advice. It does in fact work but takes greater attention. The blade can be coated with candle paraffin for lubrication. But a wide blade is necessary to maintain control.

When confidence is gained, a horn can be cut with twist and spiral.

Point 2. You cannot see the underside of the cut so you must compensate by cutting off all possible useful material, maybe one third of the mass.

Point 3. Your finished slat IS NOT PARALLEL to the natural flat on the outer curve of the horn but is some degrees off. This adds confusion at first.

Now let us turn to the ancients using the drill technique. This would require many stone drill points, mounted on wood shafts, and would require cutting out the space between the holes. Just try drilling a horn with a flat drill bit to understand how the holes cannot touch lest the bit become locked into the previous hole. If the ancientd did make these bows at all.

It is not accidental that I went to this museum. I visited about 20 museums which listed Native American artifacts, which I photographed. You may imagine how many I have visited in a lifetime. What I am saying is that Indians drilled holes into just about any object, I have never seen an object cut apart with a drill. Never, not at all. Any reference to this being an authentic technique is absolute supposition. I will still entertain looking at such an object but till that time, this is not a horn bow making technique.

What would be more likely is the charring with fire and scraping off of the excess. This is a time honored technique for wood working. Grooving and snapping is also seen. And if this is only a historic technique, using a saw is a possibility, maybe a hand made saw from some other iron tool.

Tom Lucas uses a bandsaw, I use a bandsaw and I have heard Bill Holms say a bandsaw will not work. How this got to the ancients using a bow drill is quite amazing. Practice with domestic sheep or Mouflon horns first.

Sorry for the long rant. Jack