Blunts in use.

[drdave514]

I know we've discussed many times about "blunts" and I found these passages very interesting. They are from a book called Indian Boyhood by Charles Eastman who was a Native American and lived as a Souix until about age 12 when he was reunited with his Indian father who had been captured by the Whites. They subsequently moved to the city but his childhood represented that of a Plains Indian in the late 1800s.

"We boys learned this, among other secrets of nature, and got our blunt-headed arrows together....each boy shoots always against the trunk of the tree so that the arrow may bounce back to him every time; otherwise, when he had shot away all of them he would be helpless...."

"...gave descriptive narrative of the killing of each bird and squirrel as he pulled them off his belt and therw them before his grandmother. This blund-headed arrow, said he, acutally had eyes this morning. Before the squirrel can dodge around the tree it strikes him in the head, and, he falls to the ground..."

The book is VERY good and gives a real inside look to their life at that time.

It's unclear if the blunt-headed arrows they were using are tiped with flint heads but I thought it was interesting none the less.

[Greatbasinman]

One of the intriguing things about blunts, they sure seem to mainly exist from the Midwest to the east!! I could be wrong, but I know personally it something virtually non-existence in the west. I think I might have one that resembles a blunt. Anybody in the west find them???

[Sierratracker]

Originally Posted by Greatbasinman

One of the intriguing things about blunts, they sure seem to mainly exist from the Midwest to the east!! I could be wrong, but I know personally it something virtually non-existence in the west. I think I might have one that resembles a blunt. Anybody in the west find them???

I have true blunts from my childhood in Missouri. But in CA I have only found many heavily resharpened Silver Lakes, Borax Lakes and Pintos. But they are not true blunts in my opinion. But have found lots of them. That would be a good thread to start......heavily resharpened GB points.

[paleo_joe]

I did not know that blunts were rare in the west. Are the scrapers out that way mostly hand held ones, side and end scrapers?

I have seen plenty with use polish (from hide?) but none that I can recall that have impact fractures from being shot into something.

[longtimefree]

i am from san diego ca. and untill adulthood i never knew anything about blunts from anywhere else, we were led to believe that that was a purposly made type of arrowhead used to stun prey in order to keep it alive untill needed, i have found more then 10 that i would consider originaly made that way and lots that were resharpened that way , an interesting thing about the blunts here in san diego is that the ones i would say were made as blunts were always fatter and bigger then any of the average sized arrowheads ,( a common arrowhead type here in san diego co.)

[drdave514]

I also recently saw a description of northern plains Indians shooting each other with blunts during tribal dances to bring the buffalo tribes. One guy dancing low like he was a bluffalo and another shooting him lightly with a blunt arrow in a mock hunt.

[arrow719]

Originally Posted by Greatbasinman

One of the intriguing things about blunts, they sure seem to mainly exist from the Midwest to the east!! I could be wrong, but I know personally it something virtually non-existence in the west. I think I might have one that resembles a blunt. Anybody in the west find them???

I have a few but not many. Most of the ones I have are Elkos and side notched darts, probably NSN or one of it's cousins.

[Cluton]

Hafted scrapers!!!!!!!!!