Mohicans and their rifle stock weapons.

How many tribes used that type of weapon? I know that just the sight of it would drive me to cover.I have never seen another indian use it in another movie.squib

Thanks,that explains everything.squib

squib load said:

How many tribes used that type of weapon? I know that just the sight of it would drive me to cover.I have never seen another indian use it in another movie.squib

Click to expand...

That's because that type of war club with or without the iron insert was NOT made as large as a hockey stick and swung with two hands like a baseball bat.It would have been about the same length as a regular ball headed or scimitar style club which would have been about 30 plus or minus inches long.That club and the accurate firing of two rifles {one in each hand} were truly the apex of historical authenticity. But could one expect any less from a movie referred to by a Native friend as "The John Wayne F&I" movie?
Tom Patton

Love that movie! F&I John Wayne movie........LOL.
"Native" of what?
Macon

The term Native, used by many in lieu of the term Indian, is often preferable to those of us with Native heritage.I do not care for the modern term of Native American.A term often used in Canada is Native Peoples.Remember too that the name applied to Native nations by whites is not the name used by those peoples themselves so that for example while whites used the term Iroquois,these people called themselves the Hodenosaunee or People Of The Longhouse.I hope this helps explain my use of the term Native
Tom Patton

Okwaho said:

The term Native, used by many in lieu of the term Indian, is often preferable to those of us with Native heritage.I do not care for the modern term of Native American.A term often used in Canada is Native Peoples.Remember too that the name applied to Native nations by whites is not the name used by those peoples themselves so that for example while whites used the term Iroquois,these people called themselves the Hodenosaunee or People Of The Longhouse.I hope this helps explain my use of the term Native
Tom Patton

Click to expand...

Guess it al depends on where you live - out here
in the west Indian (actually NDN is more used by many these days - as in the NDN country radio listened to out here) is still the preferred term by most of my NDN friends - as in AIM the American INDIAN movement...........and for what it's worth I'm "mixed" blood and live on the So Ute rez. and am just a few miles north of the biggest rez of all the Navajo (their name for themselves is Dine) tribe

Remember too that the name applied to Native nations by whites is not the name used by those peoples themselves so that for example while whites used the term Iroquois,these people called themselves the Hodenosaunee or People Of The Longhouse

Click to expand...

True to a point, but many of the "common" names for various tribes are not and mever were "white", but rather given by other NDN tribes, often their enemies....i.e Sioux is an appellation given to the Lakota/Dakota, etc by the Chippewa/Ojibwa....

BTW - Okwaho is correct about the size most originals are in the 27-30" range - the movie one is IIRC 34" and was made a bit larger for "screen presence".
As to which tribes used them - popular in the east, but were also widely used on the plains - Catlin illustrated many of them amongst the Sioux, Mandan, etc. in the 1830's

As for the name gunstock war club - it was a design used much earlier than the introduction of guns by the white's - there's an early pre-white image of an Aztec holding a pair of them with blades. The origins have NOTHING to with a gunstock.........

Kurz illistrated a similar weapon he called a Pocomogan during his stay at Fort Union. (early 1850's) Using dial calipers and the drawing I re created it to scale - but had to use artistic liscence because you can't see the full length of the handle. I ended up with 23 inches overall length. It is a formidable weapon. It gets a lot of attention when I display it for the Boy Scouts. Each boy wants to pick it up and test it on the skull of the boy standing next to him.

The Pocomogan is unique in one detail compared to our conception of a gun stock war club: the blade protrudes from the inside of the curve rather than the outside.

I always preferred "The People".I have a bit of Cherokee and my wife is never mistaken for a white person.Anyway, the movie is one of my all time favorites.Loved the part where u see the kilted soldiers, strokes my Scottish blood.