Coyote Knife

[church son]

Claude, this was saved from a paper written by John C. Ewers,1958 The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northwestern Plains
I have some pics somewhere of knapped blades with jawbone handles but probably all ceremonial..........Randy

The female bear then presented him with a bear-jaw handled knife by violently throwing it at him. He caught it before suffering injury. A song also accompanied the knife. The bears showed the Piegan warrior how to paint his face red and make long vertical stripes to protect himself in battle and look like a bear. The male finally taught him to always charge in battle to take the advantage from the enemy.
Blackfeet and the Gros Ventre believed the bear-knife bundle with its doubled edged blade, bear jaw handle, and feathers to give warriors the strength and courage of the bear. The power came from the bear and protected its owner in battle. “The transfer ceremony for the bear-knife bundle was so brutal that few tried to purchase it.” It involved four ritual beatings of the buyer by the seller. “. . . Most bear-knife bundle transfers ended with the owner throwing the knife as hard as he could at the buyer, who was required to catch it without injury.” Injury meant that the prospective buyer would soon die. Blackfeet believed that those with bear medicine seldom died in battle and the appearance of the bear knife cowed ones enemies

 

[Claude Mathis]

Claude, this was saved from a paper written by John C. Ewers,1958 The Blackfeet: Raiders on the Northwestern Plains
I have some pics somewhere of knapped blades with jawbone handles but probably all ceremonial..........Randy

The female bear then presented him with a bear-jaw handled knife by violently throwing it at him. He caught it before suffering injury. A song also accompanied the knife. The bears showed the Piegan warrior how to paint his face red and make long vertical stripes to protect himself in battle and look like a bear. The male finally taught him to always charge in battle to take the advantage from the enemy.
Blackfeet and the Gros Ventre believed the bear-knife bundle with its doubled edged blade, bear jaw handle, and feathers to give warriors the strength and courage of the bear. The power came from the bear and protected its owner in battle. “The transfer ceremony for the bear-knife bundle was so brutal that few tried to purchase it.” It involved four ritual beatings of the buyer by the seller. “. . . Most bear-knife bundle transfers ended with the owner throwing the knife as hard as he could at the buyer, who was required to catch it without injury.” Injury meant that the prospective buyer would soon die. Blackfeet believed that those with bear medicine seldom died in battle and the appearance of the bear knife cowed ones enemies

It doesn't mention teeth. :wink:

 

[Rod Lassey]

Believe me, they have the teeth intact, as any number of original museum examples will attest. The grizzly bear cult was particularly popular with the Blackfeet, although it showed up in other tribes as well. I've always liked this passage from James Clyman, in 1823:

"...one large middle aged Sioux blonged to the grizzle Bear medicine came on hand feet to the body of a dead Ree in the attitude of a grzzly Bear snorting and mimican the bear in all his most vicious attitudes and with his teeth tore out mouth fulls of flesh from the breast of the dead body of the Ree"

Rod

 

[tonybones]

The knife looks unwieldy to handle and use due to the fact you are thinking like a white man Claude. There is at least one Columbia River/Beavertail dagger set into a bear jawbone in John Baldwin's book on beaded sheaths and knives. Years ago, John emailed me some pictures from his collection of various jawbone knives, with teeth and without(mostly fallen out due to use and age). The double jaw handles(using a matched pair of bear, cougar, mountain lion, etc.) was a fairly common item when matched to the right blade, such as a "dag".

There are several other anomalies not understood by whites that were standard practice with Indians:

1. The Missouri River war hawk is a very badly balanced and ungainly weapon, yet they were prized and highly desired by Indians.
2. I've read historical accounts of Indians "...not fighting fair..." with regards knife fighting. We hold a knife in combat like a man carving a turkey. Good way to lose a knife. Indians(and all professional and military knife fighters) hold a knife in combat as you would wield an ice pick. The Turkey Carver Hold is from the movies, and also is used by many people wielding during a mugging or assault who sometimes has the knife taken and turned on them.
3. The knife preferred by Indians for any use was a softer blade as they liked a knife that could be quickly sharpened wityh a file rather than a stone.
4. There are many "ceremonial" examples of stone and bone bladed knives(bone bladed daggers were meant to be embedded in the body and then broken off). The actual examples of jawbones knives with metal blades(4) with teeth that I have handle were not ceremonial but for cutting out your chitlins.
5. Finally, it's 2012, not 1870, there are many things the American Indian used and did that don't make sense to us that was what worked for them.

Bones

 

[tonybones]

Rod, I can't recommend this book enough. If I have to go to the moon, this is one thing I will take:
http://www.amazon.com/Knives-Beaded-Sheaths-American-Frontier/dp/0965114619

Nones

 

[Claude Mathis]

The knife looks unwieldy to handle and use due to the fact you are thinking like a white man Claude.

Actually, I'm looking at it from the perspective of someone who has squeezed handles like that and they are not comfortable.

That's the only aspect I'm talking about. I'm not addressing Native culture or ceremonial aspects.

Race has nothing to do with it.

 

[tonybones]

Being a replica, my comments are suited more to the period Claude, not today. No, they are not comfortable, as we can find examples of jawbone knives with the teeth ground down/removed. Baldwin's book shows an example of a bear jaw minus teeth and ground smooth. The toothed handle certainly had, in surviving examples and in reproductions, a high appeal. Wrapping or removing the teeth to me lessens that appeal and authenticity, although everyone is free to make or do as they wish in their reinactor personas. There are many historic examples surviving today of antler handle knives where the handle may be at an angle we might not consider ergonomic or have projections that don't, to me, serve any ergonomic or aesthetic purpose, yet they exist. I'm working as I write this on a knife with very uncomfortable looking "Y" projections at the butt of the handle. Put this knife next to your rifle and you can see the appeal and purpose: If need be, a barrel rest.

When i say, think like an Indian, not like a white man, an example is a knife I saw auctioned or for sale by I believe was weapon antique dealer Gary Henderschott a few years ago: An elk leg bone handle, the blade had been determined to be one half of an iron hinge from a large trunk/locker. Whatever was available. I have several iron bladed knives, several made from soft steel. Whatever could be quickly made and traded. Nativewayonline.com is a good source for these softer metal blades. A great souce of blades for me for the local blacksmith-manufactured looking knives are common corn knives, used to chop corn shucks in the fall after harvest.

One of the knives I have near completion is a white tail antler handle, the blade has been determined to have been the front 14 inch tip of a broken late-war manufactured Confederate cavalry saber. Full story will accompany the posted picture.

Bones