Native North American archery has always stood for efficiency, accuracy, variety, and beauty. Different Native American bows demand different shooting stylesó some with very short draw lengths. For all self bows, the pause at full draw should be very brief, and most should be rubbed twice a year with natural animal fat. The self bow is a deadly and accurate weapon and will last for many years if handled with appreciation, but the self bow cannot be treated as casually as glass-reinforced weapons.

Rob replicates bows from over 100 different tribes, primarily in North America, but also creates other rare productions such as Andaman, Egyptian Angular, and Russian Composite. His tribal research and documentation of tribal authenticity is careful and thorough. Decorations are in acrylics except where primitive paints are noted. The bows by Rob Young are all priced so that Federal Excise tax of 11% is additional to listed price.

1. Hupa, 56" elk sinew backed juniper, elk rawhide tip protectors, braintan handle, $599.

2. Karok, 44" elk sinew backed juniper, $499.

3. Modoc, 56" elk sinew backed juniper, triangle pattern, $599.

4. Modoc, 56" elk sinew backed juniper, elk rawhide tip protectors, braintan handle, leaf pattern, primitive paint $699, acrylic $599.

5. Modoc, 48" elk sinew backed juniper, recurve tips, braintan elk on handle, flaming arrow pattern, primitive paint $779., acrylic $659.

6. Hupa, 36" elk sinew backed juniper, $599.

7. Chinook, 56" Osage orange, recurved limbs, $749.

8. Yahi, 56" Osage orange, Ishi’s basic design, $499.

1. Sioux, 45" sinew backed osage orange, recurved limbs, $499.

2. Nez Perce, 48" elk sinew backed juniper, horse hair tassle, plaited porcupine quill handle decoration, $499.

3. Cheyenne, 50" Double thickness elk sinew backed osage orange, braintan elk handle wrap, $499.

1. Cherokee, 60" osage orange, characteristic Cherokee nocks, see enlarged photo, $439.

2. Choctaw, 60" osage orange, flax string handle wrap, black patterns, $549.

3. Potawatomi, 60" hickory or black walnut, painted scallop edges, $499.

4. Wampanoag (named Sudbury by whites), 64" hickory or black walnut, the first bow seen by the Massachusetts pilgrims, $499.

6. Delaware, 70" hickory or black locust, carved limbs and tips, unique nock shape, $575.

West Alaskan Eskimo, 60" braided cable backed juniper using artificial sinew or flax, $499, real sinew $2,000.

The Egyptian Angular bow, not pictured, has a wood frame made up of a dozen wood pieces, horn belly, and sinew back. Can only approximate a requested draw weight. Over one year to make and most demanding, half down, $5,000 total.

Fine shooting self bow in hickory by Paul Rodgers. This near-universal design is patterned after the artifact in the Harvard Peabody Museum. The name refers to the town in Massachusetts where the artifact was found. Varying lengths and weights, full 28" draw.

45" sinewed hickory with buffalo horn pieces at limb ends. Imitation sinew cable, 24" to 25" short draw style. $799, without cable, just sinewed, $579. Real sinew cable available. Elegant in sight and movement.

45" rawhide backed hickory. Caribou and Otter figures on back depict land and sea hunting use. Red acrylic with concave back. 25" draw. Beautiful to see and good shooter. $579.

45" dark heartwood hickory shows on belly, sinewed on back and covered with Bull Snake skin. Smoked moosehide handle sewn with gut and sealed with pitch, wolverine fur trim. Mineral paints. B-50 string, or rawhide, sinew, or imitation sinew. Bear grease finish. A 56# version outshot an 80# longbow in distance competition. 27" to 28" draw. $799. $100 less without paint, and another $100 less without Bull Snake skin. (Composite versions of this design have reached 200fps with 400 grain arrows.)

Judson Bailey, also a rare custom rifle maker, specializes in this one family of bows devised by the original Americans of the Penobscot Bay area in Maine. Usually of hickory (or elm) in varying weights. Finished to exquisite perfection to admire and shoot. Match with heavier arrows. Has real arrow shelf. 68," full 28" draw. Other versions available such as static recurve. Starts at $1,000.

These are good matches for the Algonkian bow. Red osier dogwood shoots for shafts, and wild turkey fletching fastened with sinew glue and wrapped with elk sinew. Hand-knapped flint points fastened with fir pitch and wrapped with elk sinew. $50 each

Hand painted by a Kiowa/Nez Perce in sacred animal motifs ($115 per +? doz) or golden dragons ($155.00 per +? doz). Each color and figure notated, each arrow signed. Absolutely distinctive, set off with 3 coats of verathane and natural turkey fletches. One arrow $25.00. Shown in and by split oak quivers of Eva Reed.

Split white oak woven in traditional Cherokee basket pattern, naturally strained accent splits of orange (blood root) and dark brown (black walnut hull). Made by accomplished basket maker and member of the Eastern Cherokee community, Eva Reed. The shoulder strap of soft comfortable pigskin is provided through Larry Snell. The strap is adjustable and includes a leather piece between the quiver and the archer’s back. $130.00.

Footed arrows. Wenge footed, bone reinforced self-nocks, $150/dozen

Encyclopedia of Native American Bows, Arrows, and Quiversby S. Allely and Jim Hamm, Vol 1 (Northeastern. Southeastern, and Mid-west). $29.95.

Cherokee Bows and Arrows by Al Herrin (Oklahoma Cherokee) 1989. A wonderful recapturing of the bow making of one particular people. Very clear writing, good sketches and photos. Paper, 160 pages. $14.95. (Watch for Al’s regular column in Traditional Bowhunter. You may subscribe to his newsletter by sending $10.00 to White Bear Newsletter, Dept B, RR 3 Box 172, Tahlequah, OK 74464. $15.00 foreign.

Wm Penn’s Own Account of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians. Edited by A. C. Meyers. Direct and instructive glimpse into these lives in the late 1600s and early 1700s. $8.45.

Bloodties by Ted Kerasote. This highly recognized survival writer for Field and Stream contrasts survival hunting by the Innuits (he lived with them for several months) to sport and trophy hunting in Siberia. Challenging and enriching reading for hunters and non-hunters alike. $13.00.

The Man made of Words by N. Scott Momaday. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Momaday is a Kiowa, and a Professor of English at the University of Arizona.. One major proposition is that oral tradition kept humans connected to life and real experience, whereas written communication allows abstraction to the point of separating us from reality. Another way to learn about a people who gave us so many fine bows. $22.95.

Video, More Than Bows and Arrows. A Ph.D. Kiowa from Stanford narrates an inspiring but well documented pictorial account of the ways the original Americans contributed the fundamental knowledge for modern European Americans in agriculture, architecture, government, medicine, irrigation, and urban planning. Not much about bows, but a lot about the bowyers’ peoples. $25.95.

Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World. By Jack Weatherford, 1988. Very much a companion piece to the video, More than Bows and Arrows. The last line of the book summarizes it, "Columbus arrived in the New World in 1492, but America has yet to be discovered." 272 pages, paper, $11.00.

Crossroads of Continents: Cultures of Siberia and Alaska, by W. W. Fitzhugh and A. Crowell. Smithsonian Institution Press. Paper, oversize, high quality color photos, four bows, and three quivers. $22.00.

The White Archer, by James Huston. A profound novel of survival living with reliance on hunting with the bow in the harsh but often beautiful Arctic. A model young archer matures into a great hunter, and learns a higher way than that of tribal retribution. The story comes out of twelve years of living with the Innuit-Eskimo people. $8.95.

The Way to Independence, Memories of a Hidatsa Family, by Carolyn Gilman and Mary Jane Schneider. Reads well and compliments the Hidatsa Warrior print. Minnesota Historical Society. $29.90.

Making Indian Bows the Old Way, by Doug Wallentine. A native American tells how with many fine photos and illustrations not seen anywhere else. 100 pages oversize. $11.95.

"The Buffalo Hunt" print. Classic pandemonious scene of arrowing buffalo from horseback while at full gallop. Unframed, 23" by 35" $50.00, by Charles M. Russell, 1864-1926. Also a framed version by Carl Wimer (1860), framed in walnut with narrow gold inner accent, total 1 3/8" wide, $180.00.

Map of undisturbed U.S. American Indian Tribal Locations. Published by Eastern Cherokees, 16" by 20." Great to teach yourself, and your children. $6.00.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moennitarri Warrior (Hidatsa Tribe, North Dakota) $43.00.

CD, "Isle of Bows" by R. Carlos Nikai, classically trained, and a leading wood flutist in the Native American tradition, haunting, and wistful. $16.00.

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