PRIMITIVE AMERICAN ARMOR. 631 



winter solstice by the warrior societies, the sun is represented by a 

 shield, and attack and defense is graphically dramatized. The shields 

 of the sun warrior fraternities are decorated with the totems of the 

 individual societies. A description of this ceremony will soon be pub' 

 lished by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes. 



The various feathers, hoofs and horns, and skins of animals, etc., 

 hung to shields, are also personal fetiches. 



The distribution of the shield shows that most of the American 

 tribes possessed the shield, and a majority appear to have had no other 

 weapon of defense. There is strong presumption, however, that the 

 use of body and shield armor was widespread in America, as historical 

 notices show. 



Charlevoix, writing of the Iroquois, observes that while the western 

 tribes use bucklers of buffalo hide, "it is pretty siu'prising that other 

 Indian nations never use them."* Lafitau and the earlier mission- 

 aries, however, credit the Iroquoian people with the shield in the 

 following words: 



Their shields were of ozier or bark covered with one or many peaux pass^es; there 

 are some made of very thick skin. They had them of all sizes and all sorts of figures. t 



Some South American tribes who use body armor are said to be 

 unacquainted with the shield. Likewise the Eskimo seem to be desti- 

 tute of this weapon. 



There are probably fifty American shields in the National Museum, 

 some collected as early as 1830. Several have been handed down from 

 father to sou for a period of sixty-five years. 



These shields are from the tribes of the western portion of the con- 

 tinent and include the Crows, Sioux, Comanches, Kiowas, Navajoes, 

 Utes, Apaches, Pimas, Zunis, Mokis, etc. 



II. Body Armor. 



The aboriginal armor of North America was intended to protect the 

 vital organs and to allow free movement of the limbs. The form 

 assumes that of a sleeveless jacket, coat, or wide band going around 

 the trunk, suspended from the shoulders. The selection of defensive 

 materials and their adaptation to defensive covering for the body form 

 an interesting study in native invention, while the evidence in North 

 America of the migration of inventions awakens no less interest. 

 Thus we find that at the period of the disuse of armor by the aborig- 

 ines there were six types of body armor found on the North Amer- 

 ican Continent and contiguous regions, viz: 



Plate armor. — Eows of overlapping plates, perforated and lashed. 

 Eskimo and Chukchis. 



"Charlevoix, F. X. de, Journal of a Voyage to North America. Vol. i, p. 338. 

 Lond., 1761. 



t Lafitau, loc. cit., ii, p. 197. 



