Rating |
|
Title |
Nez Perce Bows |
Present Location |
Big Hole Battlefield National Monument, Montana. |
Subject |
Indians of North America Woodwork Bows (Archery) Arms & armament Campaigns & Battles |
Object 1 |
Yellow Wolf's Bow |
Artist (1) |
Yellow Wolf (Hemene MoxMox), Nez Perce warrior. |
Description (1) |
Wooden bow with a carved hand grip, bowstring notches, and painted designs in yellow, red, and dark green on its surface. The attached bowstring is of braided sinew. |
Provenance (1) |
Made by Yellow Wolf at L. V. McWhorter's request. It is a replica of the bow that Yellow Wolf was carrying when engaged by General Howard's troops at White Bird Canyon on June 17th, 1877. |
Size (1) |
Length: 103.5cm |
Date.Original (1) |
ca. Early 1900's |
Materials (1) |
wood, sinew |
Identifier (1) |
1986.2.63 (WSU), BIHO #637 (Big Hole) |
Object 2 |
Five Fogs' Bow |
Artist (2) |
Five Fogs (Pahka Pahtahank), Nez Perce warrior. |
Description (2) |
Carved wooden bow in a 'recurve' shape wrapped with sinew at its tips, middle, and quarter points. The sinew bands are enclosed by red painted bands. It is 106.5cm long and sweeps from each end to a 10 degree bulging curve in the middle. The convex side is flat and 2.5cm across but round on the concave side. The bowstring is missing. |
Provenance (2) |
This bow (along with a quiver and ten arrows) belonged to Five Fogs, a participant in the Nez Perce War who was killed while using it at the start of the Big Hole Battle on August 9th, 1877. It was picked up after the battle by S.G. Fisher, leader of General Howard's Bannock Indian scouts, who later passed it to Colonel Frank Parker, an associate scout. Parker's widow eventually gave it to L. V. McWhorter. |
Size (2) |
Length: 108cm |
Date.Original (2) |
ca. 1870's |
Materials (2) |
wood, sinew, paint |
Identifier (2) |
1986.2.98 (WSU), BIHO #623 (Big Hole) |
Publisher |
Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries: https://libraries.wsu.edu/masc |
Rights |
For permission to publish, please contact WSU Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections (509)335-6691. This entity maintains intellectual rights for commercial use of any kind. |
Contributors |
Museum of Anthropology at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. |
Source |
L. V. McWhorter Native American Artifact Collection. |
Slide Source |
Museum of Anthropology at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington. |
Digitization |
B/W Tri-X type negatives were scanned on an Epson 10000 XL scanner as 300dpi TIFFs, then added to ContentDM as 72dpi JPEG files at the WSU Libraries. |
Date.Digital |
2006 |