HOME

• Apache artist
• Late 1800s
• Wood and cord
• Gift of Grace Nicholson, 1935.212

Indigenous tribes used bows for hunting and warfare. Despite the spread of firearms, many Indigenous warriors maintained the use of bows and arrows for mounted combat while on horseback into the mid-1800s. Tribes such as the Apache and Comanche were particularly skilled with bows, making them far superior to those who relied on muzzle-loading guns. Bows made by Indigenous peoples were strengthened by gluing sinew from large animals to the wood.