Lance?

[kronckew]

hi jim,

interesting item on the northern 'blackfeet'. my family are from no. alabama, and would be more properly considered cherokee-blackfeet i guess. not apparently related to the plains tribe. there is disagreement on the internet as to where the 'blackfoot' (which is an english word) part came from, some people say it was from native american mixing with slaves in the carolinas. our family stuff shows us living in the general area all the way back tho.

anyhow, great granny was a full blooded indian of some sort from no. alabama, we have sepia family photos of her in the family album in full native dress, the members of the family of my generation were mostly 6 to 7 ft. tall, very slender with straight black hair, high cheekbones and hooked noses, my son is 6'2'' but blonde & blue eyed and huskily built (german genes from my side), i was told GG Granny was 'blackfoot' tribe, that may be a mangled translation of an old indian word for their branch, or some other tribe entirely. likely one of the 'civilised' south eastern tribes that got assimilated or robbed in the big land grab of the early 1800's. made us very leery of strangers from up nawth and of revenoors and sech.

they may or may not have fought with lances way back when, but we have records of our branch fighting for the confederacy (with sabre, and cap & ball rifles and colts tho - mebbe with a tomahawk thrown in for good measure ).

and that reminds me of my very first edged weapons purchase back in the late 1960's

which has been with me on my military tours inside & outside CONUS, and a few northern polar sea voyages, as well as my time in saudi and here in the UK. (had to get a pic of that in as we diverted to no. american ethnic weaponry.)