BiiLr,. 30] 



WEAPONS WEATHEKFORD 



927 



chief Okisco. A century later the same 

 territory was occupied by the Yeopim or 

 Jaupim ( Weapom-oc?), Pasquotank, Per- 

 quiman, and Poteskeet. In 1662 the 

 Yeopiiu chief sold lands. In 1701, ac- 

 cording to Lawson, the other bands still 

 counted 40 warriors, but of the Yeopim 

 only one man survived. (j. m. ) 



Jaupin.— Lawson (1714), Hist. Car., 1860. Weap- 

 omeioc— Hariot (1585), Karr., map, repr. 1893. 

 Weapomeiok. — Layue (15n5) in Smith, Va., Arbor 

 cd., 312, 1884. Weepomeokes. — Haines, Am. Ind., 

 582, 1888. Weopomeiok.-Lane (1586) in Hakluyt, 

 Voy., HI, 319, 1810. Weopomekoes.— Drake, Inds. 

 N. Am., 345, 1880. Yaopim.— Doc. 1693 in Hawks, 

 N. C, II, 137, 1858. Yeopim.— Ibid., 450. 



"Weapons. The offensive weapons of 

 the Indians may be classified by their 

 working parts and hafting, and their 

 use. Striking weapons are of stone, bone, 

 or wood, in the shape of clubs or balls, 

 and into the shapes of the clubs the tribes 

 carved a marvelous amount of their my- 

 thology, especially those among whom 

 tractable wood was abundant; cutting 

 weapons, before the introduction of iron, 

 were made of stone or copper; piercing 

 weapons were of any hard substance 

 that would take a point. Many weap- 

 ons had two or more functions. The 

 Sioux had clubs armed with blades or 

 points; among other tribes cutting or 

 thrusting weapons were weighted. All 

 three classes are subdivided according to 

 the manner of holding or mounting. 

 They were held in the hand, perhaps 

 wrapped with a strip of fur, set in a grip 

 for one hand, mounted on a longer shaft 

 for two hands, or slung to a line. Missile 

 weapons were thrown from a sling, darted 

 from a throwing-stick, hurled from the 

 hand, or shot from a bow. Not all these 

 were equally common. The chisel-edged 

 arrow of Africa was almost unknown in 

 the Western Hemisphere. Piercing im- 

 plements for hunting were often com- 

 bined with a device for holding the 

 quarry, and the Mexicans are said to 

 have shot the soldiers of Cortes with 

 harpoon arrows thrown from atlatls; 

 but war arrows had lanceolate, not 

 barbed points. The war arrow also had 

 a single head. The poisoning of arrows 

 is a much mooted question. 



The most common defensive weapon of 

 the North Americans was the shield, worn 

 on the left arm by means of thongs fast- 

 ened on the inside and used both for 

 parrying and for covering the vitals. 

 Shields were usually circular in form and 

 made of the thickest rawhide, though 

 bark, basketry, and rods woven together 

 served the purpose here and there. The 

 making of a shield, for which one or more 

 covers were prepared, was attended with 

 great ceremony. On the surface were 

 painted heraldic devices, and the shield 

 was further adorned with fringes, pre- 

 cious objects, tassels, and the plumes of 



eagles. A special place was set apart for 

 it in or about the tent. 



Armor was not imiversal and was of two 

 sorts: (1) wovenof rods or splints of wood 

 or of plates of ivory; (2) made of thick 

 rawhide. From Bering str. southward 

 all varieties are found. There is historic 

 evidence of skin armor on the Atlantic 

 slope. The fighting of the Indians was 

 chiefly hand to hand, hence there was little 

 need of engineering inventions or coop- 

 erative weapons demanding the united 

 effort of a number of men. See Arntovy 

 Arrows, Clubs, Daggers, Knives, Lances, 

 Poisons, Shields, Slings, Spears, Tlirowing- 

 stick, Tomahawk, etc. (o. t. m. ) 



Weare. A Tenankutchin village at the 

 mouth of Tanana r., Alaska. — Baker, 

 Geog. Diet. Alaska, 1902. 



Weataug. A village formerly near the 

 site of the present Salisbury, Litchfield 

 CO., Conn., containing 70 wigwams in 

 1740. Its inhabitants were probably a 

 pait of the Mahican. 



Weataug.— Trumbull, Ind. Names Conn., 80, 1881. 

 Weatog.— Trumbull, Hist. Conn., ii, 109, 1818. 



Weatherford, William (known also as 

 Lamochattee, or Red Eagle). A half- 

 blood Creek chief, born about 1780; 

 noted for the part he played in the Creek 

 war of 1812-14, in which Gen. Jackson 

 was leader of the American forces. There 

 is some uncertainty as to his parentage. 

 Claiborne ((juoted by Drake, Inds. N. 

 Am., 388, 1860) says his "father was an 

 itinerant peddler, sordid, treacherous, 

 and revengeful; hismother a full-blooded 

 savage of the tribe of the Seminoles." 

 Another authority says that a trader, 

 Scotch or English, named Charles 

 Weatherford (believed to have been the 

 father of William), married a half-sister 

 of Alexander McGillivray (q. v.), who 

 was the daughter of an Indian chief of 

 pure blood. In person he was tall, 

 straight, and well proportioned, and na- 

 ture had bestowed upon him genius, elo- 

 quence, and courage, but his moral char- 

 acter was far from commendable. He 

 led the 1,000 Creeks at the massacre 

 of Ft Mimms, Aug. 30, 1S18. Gen. Jack- 

 son having entered the field, the Creeks 

 were driven from point to point until 

 Weatherford resolved to make a desperate 

 effort to retrieve his waning fortunes by 

 gathering all the force he could command 

 at the Great Horseshoe bend of the Tal- 

 lapoosa. The signal defeat his forces suf- 

 fered at this point ended the war, and 

 Weatherford, to save further blood.shed, 

 or perhaps shrewdly judging tlie result, 

 voluntarily delivered himself to Jackson 

 and was released on his promise to use 

 his influence to maintain peace. He died 

 Mar. 9, 1824, leaving many children, who 

 intermarried with the whites. It is said 

 that after the war his character changed, 



