steel and iron weaponry of the american natives.........

[ausjulius]

just tryed invain again , the best i could find was a book:
Native North American Armor, Shields, and Fortifications,

no metion of metal weaponry,, .......
this is driving me nuts, i remember the book even had a good selection of fotos.. and stated that many exsamples were preserved in canadian museams today... along with severla of the copper plated traded by the natives.........????

[Jeff D]

Hi Ausjulius,

Try searching under "Tlingit", you should be able to find some information. Also there is some information in Swords and Hilt Weapons by Barnes and Noble. Chapter 16 deals with pre-conquest America.
Hope this gets you started.

Jeff

[Andrew]

I am unaware of any Native American steel or iron weapons predating the arrival of Europeans (16th century). By that time, the majority of Native American technology was stone-age, with the noteable exception of Tlingit copper-working in the Pacific Northwest.

A nice book is Colin F. Taylor's, Native American Weapons, Salamander Books, Ltd., United Kingdom (2001) ISBN 0-8061-3346-5.

[ausjulius]

hi "Tlingit" might be it...... anyway i remember the swords were quitly complicated... at the base of the blade where the fullers began the formed a face or pattern , looking quite alot like the pacific islanders tattoos,,, looked like it was forged into the blade....... andway i recall that the writer specualted the origins of the native metal working were russian , or were brought from some parts of siberia or russias far east colonies... which makes sence as the natives in the east all had the ability to work steel,, and were many times froced to work for the russians in the americas

[ausjulius]

http://www.alaskanativeartists.com/t...body_armor.htm

seems somebody is making reproductions of theTlingit body armor,.....

Potlatch was the term i remember now....... but none of the Tlingit look as the knives i saw pictures....
if i recall correctly the daggers were more as a kindjal,, and had a secound blade on the pommel, as on some african daggers and swords..
they also had multi fullered blades........

anyone seen anything like this????????? .....

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by ausjulius

[url]
anyone seen anything like this????????? .....

Yes. Tlingit.

If possible, check out the book I mentioned above.

[ausjulius]

thanks i shall.. but there isnt mant book shops around here... ill keep an eye out.....

[mross]

Originally Posted by Andrew

I am unaware of any Native American steel or iron weapons predating the arrival of Europeans (16th century). By that time, the majority of Native American technology was stone-age, with the noteable exception of Tlingit copper-working in the Pacific Northwest.

A nice book is Colin F. Taylor's, Native American Weapons, Salamander Books, Ltd., United Kingdom (2001) ISBN 0-8061-3346-5.

I agree with Andrew. Most of what people think of Native American weapons, in particuliar the tomahawk where in fact trade items. Ditto for their knives. Most auctions that deal with Native American artifacts never mention steel weapons. A case inpoint that was in a thread here recently was a knife and sheath from ebay, the knife was not even mentioned. What was for sale was the beadwork decorated sheath. My main intrests are in ancient metallurgy, so it would be nice if the US had a history of it, but so far I have not found any.

[Battara]

Many steel bladed NW Coast knives were made of the traded Russian steel or even made of work out files. Again, as mentioned earlier, these were of the 19th century period. You can also look at older Sotheby's and Butterfield's auctions for these examples.

[David]

Perhaps this is more of what you are looking for. It is one of two daggers made of meteoric ore and is said to go back 10 generations. I believe it is currently in the hands of Harold Jacobs, a Tlingit cultural specialist whose family had been the caretakers of this piece for some time. It was recently returned to his tribe by a museum.The dagger, called Keet Gwalaa (Killer whale dagger) is 27" in length. The copper binding the hilt is on very tight. It appears to be made in two pieces joined at the hilt.