278 THE MENOMINI INDIANS [eth.ann.U 



the shaftment, a sinew thread, not thicker than a strand of silk, is tied 

 horizontally around the feathers and shaftment midway between the 

 glued ends. 



As a finishing touch, the creases are tinted with color bought of the 

 trader, while additional marks are placed on that portion of the shaft- 

 ment exposed between the feathers. The specimens of arrows before 

 me, made by the Meuomini, have each five spots of dark blue placed 

 at intervals of an inch or so along each of the three sides. A blue baud 

 also is painted around the shaftment at the forward end of the 

 feathered tips, while sometimes an additional band is found around 

 the end which touches the nock. 



The various northwestern tribes of the Algonquian stock were care- 

 ful in specifically decorating with colors their own individual arrows, 

 by which means they were recognizable by others of the band of 

 which the owner was a member. Duplications were commou, but it is 

 claimed that even then each person could readily recognize his own 

 property. These property marks, being generally known, were some- 

 times the cause of serious trouble; for instance, when one Indian 

 would steal the arrows of another for the purpose of destroying an 

 enemy, the frieuds of the latter ultimately ascertained the identity of 

 the owner of the arrows and avenged the death, the true criminal 

 remaining unknown. 



Intertribal warfare is known to have occurred through such means 

 between the Arapaho and Sioux, and between the Sioux and the con- 

 federated tribes at Fort Berthold, North Dakota; and the Apache and 

 other tribes of the far southwest are reported to have obtained the 

 arrows of neighboring Indians to use in attacks ou outlying settle- 

 ments of the whites, thus causing the raid to be attributed to another 

 aud possibly peaceable tribe. 



In his report ou "North American bows, arrows, and quivers," Pro- 

 fessor Otis T. Mason refers to the statement frequently made by fron- 

 tiersmen that the plains Indians had two ways of mouuting an arrowhead 

 with relation to the notch at the nock. " If the plane of the arrowhead 

 be horizontal when the arrow is in position for shooting — that is, at 

 right angles to the notch — the missile is a war arrow, to go between the 

 ribs of men. But if the plane of the head be vertical when the bow is 

 drawn, the missile is a hunting-arrow for passiug between the ribs of 

 bulfalo and other mammals. 1 



Colonel Richard I. Dodge, 2 in speaking of the Comanche, has fallen 

 into the same error. Captain John G. Bourke, of the United States 

 Army, whose active experience in the southwest, especially among the 

 Apache tribes of Arizona, eutitles his opinion to high consideration, 

 believes this to be a mistake, and remarks that he has seen all kinds 

 of arrows in the same quiver. 3 



1 Smithsonian Report for 1893, Washington, 1894. p. 601. 



'' Wild Indians, Hartford, 1890. p. 419. 



3 Quoted by Professor Mason, op. cit., p. 661. 



