Native Adornment?

[archieclement]

I notice guns at auctions, often from decades following ACW, billed as Native American or Native American style, decorated with tacks or inlays.

Was this really a thing to any degree? I have seen quite a few portrait or treaty pictures of Native Americans..........and in vast majority of them the stocks look unadorned.

 

[Lincoln56]

I notice guns at auctions, often from decades following ACW, billed as Native American or Native American style, decorated with tacks or inlays.

Was this really a thing to any degree? I have seen quite a few portrait or treaty pictures of Native Americans..........and in vast majority of them the stocks look unadorned.

Article about this practice: Whether is an accurate analysis, I do not know but it has some interesting points.

Traditional Native American Gun Décor Told a Story

By: Randy TuckerThe Oglala called it Maza Wakan – “holy iron” in their language. “Maza,” meaning iron, and “Wakan” referring to everything holy, a term used for a person’s essence or spirit, and not a word for God (although Christian missionaries took it as such). Firearms became an integral...

gunpowdermagazine.com

Like everything else in today's world, I'm sure there are 'enterprising' folks that add aged brass tacks to rifles and represent them as having authentic Native American provenance.

 

[johan_steele]

It's a matter of it depends upon time and tribe as much as anything. The Lakota & Cheyenne personalized their weapons inm a far different way than Cherokee or Apache which is perfectly understandable as they were/are rather disparate cultures. I have seen and handled original Custer battlefield related arms that were in the possession of Lakota and Cheyenne Warriors that were very heavily decorated. I have also handled an Apache owned Henry or 1866 Winchester (I don't recall which) that was largely unadorned except for the sling made of scalps. It really depended upon the tribe and the timeframe as much as anything I think.

 

[Jeff in Ohio]

I notice guns at auctions, often from decades following ACW, billed as Native American or Native American style, decorated with tacks or inlays.

Was this really a thing to any degree? I have seen quite a few portrait or treaty pictures of Native Americans..........and in vast majority of them the stocks look unadorned.

Most of these are as authentic as a gun inscribed "From R E Lee to Sitting Bull"

 

[archieclement]

Most of these are as authentic as a gun inscribed "From R E Lee to Sitting Bull"

Thats why I ask.....They certainly look kinda cool.....a few Natives/cowboys/vaquaros may have went to lengths decorating guns.....but most period treaty/reservation pictures I see, most are holding what look to be regular unadorned Winchesters or Springfields.

 

[Pollaco]

I often wondered how the Indians (or anyone for that matter) hammered the brass tacks into the wood without scratching the tack heads.Brass does scratch easily. It almost appears that they were "pressed" into the hardwood.

 

[shooter too]

I believe that P.T. Barnum put it best.

"There is a sucker born every min..."

 

[Dullknife]

I notice guns at auctions, often from decades following ACW, billed as Native American or Native American style, decorated with tacks or inlays.

Was this really a thing to any degree? I have seen quite a few portrait or treaty pictures of Native Americans..........and in vast majority of them the stocks look unadorned.

Tacks were a thing. Several guns decorated with them are on display in the Springfield Armory Museum. You look at old paintings and photos you see warclubs with them too and things like mirror boards as well.

All Tacked Up

Using brass or iron furniture tacks was one of American Indians’ favorite ways of dressing up their firearms. Decorations on firearms and other

truewestmagazine.com

 

[14NYSM]

Next ask - "Where did the tacks come from?" Were they trinkets sold/traded to Indians by white men? Did traders jazz up a gun for more appeal to Indians when trading?

 

[cannonjockey]

Most of these are as authentic as a gun inscribed "From R E Lee to Sitting Bull"

I have that exact gun but the inscription is spelled out with alternating tacks and skittles glued in between

 

[archieclement]

Next ask - "Where did the tacks come from?" Were they trinkets sold/traded to Indians by white men? Did traders jazz up a gun for more appael to Indians when trading?

Decorative items seemed to be popular trade goods.

Though I question if an adorned gun could be proven authentic......assume gun/decorations could be dated, and proven the work was done during the period................how could one rule out a cowboy or settler not having decorated his gun?

Saddles were sometimes tacked or Concho'ed. Certainly those with money could request arms elaborately engraved or inlaid, would seem reasonable the lower incomes might occasionally decorated their own.

 

[Scott1967]

I notice guns at auctions, often from decades following ACW, billed as Native American or Native American style, decorated with tacks or inlays.

Was this really a thing to any degree? I have seen quite a few portrait or treaty pictures of Native Americans..........and in vast majority of them the stocks look unadorned.

It was more so in the East than the West , Inlaid shell or Wampum was used to decorate stocks , Beads were hung from the trigger guards that could also include animal parts like deer feet or rabbits foot and that's as far as my knowledge goes.

 

[S.Isaacson]

I notice guns at auctions, often from decades following ACW, billed as Native American or Native American style, decorated with tacks or inlays.

Was this really a thing to any degree? I have seen quite a few portrait or treaty pictures of Native Americans..........and in vast majority of them the stocks look unadorned.

A lot of the guns you see in portraits of Native Americans are studio props. A good example of this is Ben Wittick's photographs of the Apache in the southwest. A lot of his photographs show Apaches holding the same Frank Wesson rifle over and over again.
For example:

There definitely are real Native American tack decorated firearms and other items such as those shown below. Whites in the West also sometimes adopted this form of adornment.

Caveat emptor: there are also plenty of low condition antiques that were "updated" with modern tacks and aged to try to up-sale otherwise low end, beat up muzzleloaders.