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over forty downed cows. As he rode back to
identify his kills, family members rushed
down to retrieve his arrows and women and
girls with butchering knifes exhalted their
“Li-Li-li-li-leeee” vocal trills of excitement.
Iron Bear’s three sons retrieved 15 of his 18
arrows, and he put them back in his quiver.
The arrows were marked with dark blue
paint mixed with hide glue. Some were lost
over the years, but they were a treasure kept
by the family even when they settled onto the
agency after returning from Canada in 1881.
Iron Bear passed and in the 1920s a man
from the Eya s’ic’a Oyate (German/Swiss
people) came. It was during the depression
when there was no work, especially on the
remote and isolated Cheyenne River Sioux
reservation. Crops were failing and times were
hard. The man from Europe was looking for
bows, arrows, moccasins, shirts, bonnets and
other artifacts. He had $5 to offer for a set of
arrows. That would buy a month’s worth of
groceries for the family of eight—Iron Bear’s
descendants. The man purchased the arrows
along with clothing and beadwork and left the
next day never to be heard from again.
In April of 2012, I had the privilege to
go to Switzerland and to stay with a very
special family whom I am proud to call
friends, the Gassmans. I taught Plains
Horse Archery for the first time in Europe
to 17 students over a two-week period.
Jack and Sam Gassman, brothers, helped
wrangle horses and give ground technique
instruction to students. We used Spanish
Mustangs only (from the Windcross
Conservancy Herd) for the clinic; they
40
www.PrimitiveArcher.com Volume 21 Issue 1
Bow and arrows
made by the author.
were the original horse brought to the
Americas from Europe.
During my stay in the small village of
Buhler, my friends took me to one of the
places I had wanted to visit, the Museum
of St. Gallen. It was a marvelous house of
treasures. During the 1920s, collecting
American Indian artifacts was quite the
rage in European countries like Germany
and Switzerland. The oldest and quite
possibly best examples of Native American
artifacts can be found in museums in
Europe, due to the fact that for 400 years
prior to the 1920s, Europeans had been
bringing back material items of every kind
from the New World.
Buyers would be given a bankroll and
Author working with a young
Spanish Mustang in South
Dakota. Photo by Pam Keeley
sent to the United States to go around to
reservations and buy items for museum
collections. Sometimes, of course, that
included bows, arrows, and archery tackle.
Many of these items were postagency/reservation
era. These are items
made specifically in the late 1890s or early
1900s. However, a few older treasures
seem to have wound up in the mix.
Most of the buyers weren’t searching for
specific items as much as they were on a
trip for Indian “stuff.” However, I’m sure
weapons and clothing were high on the list.
My friends' son had done volunteer
work at the museum, through him and the
family's connections in St. Gallen, an
appointment was set up for me to view the
collection. This allowed me the opportunity
to help identify some of the items and give
Chokecherry shaft, purple chert, flared nock arrow
used by the author to down a 2,000-pound bison in
Cheyenne River with a 16-inch penetration.