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Eastern Plains Sioux ball headed war club started...
JW_Halverson:
"Plains" era Sioux were past the stoneage. They were actively trading for metal well before they were pushed out of the woodlands to the east and out onto the western prairie. In the prairie buffalo era it is nearly impossible to find Siouxan stone points because common availability iron and steel (and even brass for that matter).
James Hanson, curator at the Museum of the Fur Trade has done an extensive cataloging of axe heads collected on the upper plains. He has noticed on EVERY axe head there are chisel marks on the sides. Along with the records of chisels, hammers, and files being common trade goods this is a fair indication that the axe heads were used as portable anvils for reductive ironworking. Larger pieces such as barrel hoops were reduced to smaller pieces not only for arrowheads but for decorations. Numerous collections include iron hair pieces, conchos, cones, and other shiney bits.
This in no way reduces the accomplishment of turning out such a well made war club just because they used steel instead of stone. You have the advantage of modern steel, chainsaws, and other tools and still find yourself working up a serious sweat to create a copy! Please keep posting photos of your progress, I want to see it finished! I always enjoy your work, medicinewheel. Could you post dimensions of the original as well?
If you can ever get over here to the States, save the cost of a hotel and stay with me. The Black Hills is right in the center of everything! Plus you can use my shop and my tools while you're here.
medicinewheel:
JW, thanks a lot for the info (I didn't know the Sioux originated in the woodlands) and even more thanks for the kind invitation! I really feel honored.
The Black Hills are Sioux holy land right?
I do not have original dimensions; I blew up the copy till it seemed to make sense. I'll post my dimensions soon as I'm done with the thing. Hopefully next weekend.
JW_Halverson:
Very late in Sioux history they arrived in western South Dakota, having been pushed out of their homelands in Minnesota and Wisconsin by the Ojibway, who were waging a war of anihilation on them. (for some reason many modern historians want to gloss over the fact that people in North American had discovered how to kill each other long before Columbus arrived) The Ojibway had allied themselves early on with the French Canadian fur traders and acquired guns, something the Sioux didn't have much access to.
They were poorly adapted to survival on the wide open plains where it is a full day's walk for a healthy adult from moving from one water source to another. But they got lucky when the Mandan along the Missouri river gave them horses. Finally the Sioux had mobility and an ability to hunt in an effective manner for the larger game animals abundant on the wide open Dakotas.....and for a short time the Sioux reigned as an apex culture.
Some Sioux legends now claim that the Black Hills have always been theirs and have always been holy to them. But that doesn't take into account how they found this land in the possession of the Crow, and how they waged a war of anihilation against them for possession. I hope you don't take this as me judging them or what revisionist amateur historicans incorrectly call racism, this is just recorded history.
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