Eastern woodland bows.

[Hillbilly]

Remember that most of the heavy European warbows are basically a very similar design except with a little rounder cross-section and and people regulary make them at weights over a hundred pounds.

[a finnish native]

most of the european war bows were a lot longer also.
As far as I have read about the native american bows, sinew backed bows were mainly used in california and the plains area. this was mainly due to the climate factors. If you look back to history, sinew backed bows have mainly been used in areas that have a dry climate. A sinew backed bow performs best in dry areas.
What are mainly considered as eastern woodland bows are usually bows made from whitewoods such as hickory and maple. the bows were mainly D profile with a flattened belly. and selfbows.

[George Tsoukalas]

Papa Mat, not necessarily. My board bows are mostly 1.5 in. wide. ELB's have the handle as the widest part also. Their draw weights were very high. The only EWB pic's  I've seen with narrowed handles is the Sudbury and the Pawmunkey , I believe, so they were not typical. See Vol 2 of the Encylopedia of Bows and Arrows by Hamm and Allely. Jawge

[snedeker]

One thing that I wonder about is how sure we really are about pre-European  contact bows in the Eastern US.  There are very very few actual archaeological specimens.  We don't have many peat bogs or dry caves. There are the couple bows from colonial times like the Sudbury. the eastern seaboard was heavily impacted by European trade by the beginning of the 17th century.  Tbe English drawings from the early 1600s seem to look a little too much like ELBs seemingly based on the bias of the artists.  I wonder how accurate some of the attribution of such and such a style to such and such a tribe can be,

I'm of the school that sees the bow introduced to the NE US around AD900.  That means the bow concept was still relatively young when it was replaced by the gun.

Dave (Eastern Woodland Archaeologist)

[Papa Matt]

Dave, if you believe the bow arrived in NE US around 900, (I'm not implying that I would agree nor disagree) do you have a theory as to why it would have taken so long for it to be adopted there? What about other parts of the country, which, in your belief, had the bow first? Just curious

~~Papa Matt

[snedeker]

Theres a nice paper on this by a guy named Burke or something like that.  I'll dig it out.  The bow was around in northern Canada pretty early.  Couple thousand BC maybe.   Maybe enters northern Plains of US by around AD 200.  Use of it diffuses from there, 900 or so in NE and SW US.   Maybe a little earlier  in SE for some reason.     

One of the big pieces of evidence for this is projectile point characteristics.  There's a suggen change to small triangular points of the same general style across a large area in the late first millenium AD. earlier ones are simply too big too be effective arrow points. 

Of course, one might ask about the potential use of fire hardened wood points.  A lot of the indisputable arrows found in Gila Cave, NM from AD 900 had wood points.

The problem is the lack of direct archaeological evidence.  I do know that there is not a single specimen of a tool that is clearly a bow known from anywhere south of the Canadian border prior to the first Millenium AD

Dave

[orcbow]

I think this is a fascinating topic. But since there is such a lack of archeological evidence with regards to wood artifacts, who knows if we will ever know the full story.

I think there is a "eastern woodland bow" that is a generic style. And I don't think it does any dis-service to any culture, because I believe it represents a utility bow if nothing else. A feed your family bow. I think it has to be made with the woods of the east to qualify as a eastern woodland bow. If it is made from yew then it becomes an english long bow.  The people who made these bows in the past had good reasons to do what they did, and made the best of their local resources. There is no reason to think that the people who lived in the wide area of the "eastern woodland" would not share their ideas, and if making a long, narrow, bend-in-the-handle bow, made sense, why wouldn't they do it? Especially if it could be made fast and easily. Imagine if making a bow was a chore, not a privilege or a hobby. Wouldn't that lead to a simplified design. And if someone was talented and innovative they would add some carving, or make a double bow or otherwise add something to the design to make it "theirs". Or a certain unique piece of wood may lead to a special design, like our character bows. 

[a finnish native]

well.. the Natives lived in communities just like we do. mainly things went so that a community had maybe a few bow makers who made bows as their job. not everyone made their own. I believe that the character bows of the time were the ones that were totally straight. you guys know how hard it is to make a perfectly straight bow from a stave. then of course ceremonial bows were different with all sorts of carvings and other characteristics.

[Mechslasher]

this is my idea of a eastern woodlands bow.  i forget the actual dimentions but this one is an exact replica of the bow in ttbb.  it's 55#@28" and shoots about 158fps if i remember right.  i've always heard the bow crossed the mississippi around 1500-2000 yeas ago.

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[Papa Matt]

That's some respectable speed, ain't it Mechlasher? Is that one of the faster bows you've made or how do you consider its 158fps? I've never measured the speed of one of mine, so I am trying to get a feel for what "good" speed would be.

~~Papa Matt

[Mechslasher]

this about average speed for a straight bow.  if a straight selfbow of mine shoots 100+bow wieght i'm happy.  recurves are a different story.