Native American Sword (Pawnee/Otoe)

BAW · 2nd March 2020, 12:22 AM

The sword shown in the pictures look very much like the U.S. model 1832 heavy artillery sword, though it is hard to see the distinctive fullers and wasp-waisted blade that would make identification more certain.
It is a little-known fact that, though the model 1832 sword was current military issue and therefore not readily obtainable by civilians, a number of them were made available to "free state" guerillas during the so-called "Kansas- Nebraska War" in the late 1850's. Whether this was done through official or non-official channels is unknown, but photographs from the era show them being worn by free state partisans, and the swords used to murder 5 "Jayhawker" prisoners during the Pottawotamie Massacre in 1856, though referred to as "broadswords" in newspaper accounts, were actually 1832 artillery swords. As the Kansas-Nebraska War took place in the middle of Otoe and Pawnee territory, it is possible that Indians obtained them from the Free Staters, or perhaps from whatever source supplied them to the Free Staters.
Incidentally, many years ago I worked on an archaeological project at Mission San Diego de Alcala, in San Diego, California, a mission built in the 18th century and occupied by U.S. troops as barracks in the 1850's. In a cavity beneath a tile floor we discovered a cache of several model 1832 artillery swords. The assumption was that they had been stolen by a soldier who intended to sell them, but for some reason never retrieved them.

2nd March 2020, 12:22 AM	#2
BAW Member Join Date: Nov 2019 Posts: 6	re. Native American sword The sword shown in the pictures look very much like the U.S. model 1832 heavy artillery sword, though it is hard to see the distinctive fullers and wasp-waisted blade that would make identification more certain. It is a little-known fact that, though the model 1832 sword was current military issue and therefore not readily obtainable by civilians, a number of them were made available to "free state" guerillas during the so-called "Kansas- Nebraska War" in the late 1850's. Whether this was done through official or non-official channels is unknown, but photographs from the era show them being worn by free state partisans, and the swords used to murder 5 "Jayhawker" prisoners during the Pottawotamie Massacre in 1856, though referred to as "broadswords" in newspaper accounts, were actually 1832 artillery swords. As the Kansas-Nebraska War took place in the middle of Otoe and Pawnee territory, it is possible that Indians obtained them from the Free Staters, or perhaps from whatever source supplied them to the Free Staters. Incidentally, many years ago I worked on an archaeological project at Mission San Diego de Alcala, in San Diego, California, a mission built in the 18th century and occupied by U.S. troops as barracks in the 1850's. In a cavity beneath a tile floor we discovered a cache of several model 1832 artillery swords. The assumption was that they had been stolen by a soldier who intended to sell them, but for some reason never retrieved them.