The Use of the Bow by our Indians MHS Transactions, Series 3,
Number 22, 1965-66 Season Allow me, at the beginning, to caution
you. There is, actually, very little known about the use of the
bow by our Indians. For this reason you will find that much of
this paper concerns itself with our own knowledge and use of the
bow. I am cheered, however, by the thought that history is what
we know and think today about past events and is not what
actually happened yesterday. I might say that the observations
which follow could have been written with greater accuracy two
hundred and fifty years ago when the Indians were still masters
of the Plains. Two things should be remembered. First, the
Indians possessed no written records. Therefore, much of their
rich history has been forever lost. Secondly, and this is
equally important, the Europeans who came here had already lost
interest in the bow. They had fire-arms before they set foot
anywhere in the Americas. Fire-arms impressed our Indians from
the beginning and were am