Making the Cherokee Bow, A Bow Maker's Journey

[@terrywright6076]

As a Cherokee and Cheyenne I have to have respect for this vid

[@PrimitiveLifeways]

Thank you so much!

[@TaylorsAuthenticTraditions]

Siyo unali'i! Sgi for this amazing video and for preserving our rich cultural history! I have been viewing your channel for many winters. Keep up the excellant work. Donadagohvi!

[@1943L]

UK here. Thanks for the history and detailed requirements to fashion such a fantastic bow.

[@usnchief1339]

I have two nice 52" osage stave. One will become a Cherokee bow and the other a plains style bow. Excellent video...thanks!

[@836dmar]

Enjoy the videos and history. I’m sure I’m not the first to ask for an arrow building video. Keep up the great content!

[@christophercole9360]

Wow. First off thank you for the videos. I have watched them all. I draw out to 31 inches. I shoot the same arrows as sasquatch. I messed with a 48 inch bow and these little bows are barn burners! I'm inspired to grab my tools and try again. You guys do a great job of removing the voodoo from making bows. With some good books a guy or gal can get right to it. It's the same for your other primitive skills vids. Y'all make your worth watching. My boss hates you, I thank you. Y'all have a blessed day, same to y'all in the comments section.

[@stevedriscoll2539]

It's amazing that you can draw that short bow a full 20" and you end up with such little set. It really zings those beautiful arrows. I don't want to say too much, but I wish the Indigenous people still existed (in the same way they had existed for thousands of years) on this land mass

[@ReasonAboveEverything]

Globalization ends up ruining the diversity on this planet.

[@joegrande4848]

He learned from a highly knowledgeable Native American how to craft these amazing pieces. 😊

[@tonymaurice4157]

Some Cherokee warbows were made from black locust ash Hickory, red oak and they were over 70"inches

[@severinevans346]

Interesting. Makes sense though longer bow longer draw more accuracy.

[@Daylon91]

Yes he purposefully made the bow shorter as he explained in the video.

[@severinevans346]

@@Daylon91 I know I didn't see it till after I made the comment

[@rockyridge8737]

I start mine at 72 and make to fit,love the videos and help is always needed ,thanks

[@opossum2255]

Make more videos !! I make fire hardened hickory Cherokee style bows. I loved this

[@smcewen7]

How long do you fire cure them,until the stem stops coming out of the ends or what??

[@addersbowman]

Thank you sir, you are gentleman, a squire and a fantastic bowman. Personally I love short bows, being a longbowman in my youth (I am English) as is our tradition, but contrary to many thoughts, the short bow was used in England for game hunting by the peasants throughout the middle ages and before. I build my bows from waste materials, I would love to build a bow from Holly which was a common wood used in England for shorties. I am sure the method you describe above could work also. Thanks.

[@joegrande4848]

They used these bows for battle and hunting. Especially Native American tribes like the Commanche who are great warriors easier to shoot from a horse. 😊

[@sethtsosie4524]

Wow. That came out super nice

[@larryfinley9221]

Great video. You should definitely put on your bucket list to go visit the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument which is about 35 miles NE of Amarillo Texas. It is about a unique 12 square mile area bordering a river that produces Alibates flint. It was highly prized by native peoples since the ice age after the great flood. The native peoples would dig 6 to 8’ pit mines to harvest and trade the prized flint. Their fillings from working the flint are all over the place. It was active through the days of the Comanches, who were the last tribe to work it. It is part of the National Park system, and they conduct walking tours up to the tops of the Mesas where the mines are located. Outcroppings of Alibates flint are everywhere. A fascinating place. The rangers also do an excellent job of explaining the edible plant life, and animals that the people hunted.

[@eingooglenutzer3629]

Ich werde nie so einen Bogen bauen, aber Deine Videos sind einsame Spitze....👍great!

[@evensenj5670]

That is the nicest bow i saw being made, looks excellent.

[@robertthorn9560]

I noticed on your videos, the grain weight of the arrows are not given, an important factor...enjoying the videos. I just finished a 58 inch osage Cherokee bow ,a great shooter, a perfect simple design for hunting.

[@G-and-J-Chapel-Artworks]

When making traditional arrows, the grain weight will vary depending on the staves you choose.

[@joegrande4848]

I really enjoy this channel ☺️

[@busterthompson4520]

Nicely done,I just finished a black locust bow! 52 inch

[@johnny30806]

Very nice shorty

[@BillRodgers2]

I’ve always avoided ones with nots I did learn something on this thank you. Also I’ve addressed flaws by backing my bows with snake skin and it also makes them very pretty

[@clayapreston5641]

Does a bow need to be more powerful than 40, or 50 lbs to hunt with and take medium size game???

[@Daylon91]

No that is enough to kill anything in North America

[@sherry7831]

Great video!

[@clayapreston5641]

Do you have a book that can describe your primitive bows and arrows???

[@chriswes4746]

Beautiful bow, can you provide some information on the overall length and brace height? Your videos inspired me to try building a short bow myself :-) if only Osage would be easier to get in Europe

[@FPSWildlifeAngler]

u can get stuff like ash or oak even red ceder will work

[@caseysmith544]

Use wild European Mulberry trees if in the right parts, that is a good wood used for bows too by Native Tribes in USA and Canada.

[@charlesdavis9937]

The Cherokee had two bow sizes. One short for hunting and a longer one for war. I’m only about 1% Cherokee.

[@terrywright6076]

Ok so I haven’t made a bow yet but I’m rrl interested and almost made one but it was not Osage idk what to use I live in KS it’s hard to find Osage here

[@stevedriscoll2539]

I thought Kansas was loaded with Osage. My friend Gary got a log from Kansas, split it, it made 8 staves (as I remember, maybe only six though). I made a really nice bow, and there were at least 4 nice bows made ( at the time ). Probably, after time, that one log made at least six bows

[@terrywright6076]

@@stevedriscoll2539 yeah I just figured out our woods is packed with it I didn’t know 😅

[@stevedriscoll2539]

@@terrywright6076 awesome, your lucky! 🙂👍 I went to southern Iowa one time (they planted a lot of it for hedges between the fields) and cut some big logs...it was a neat experience.

[@Reddirtrelichunters]

I thought grain run out in the non working portion of the limb was okay....?

[@robynmcleroy216]

What do you recommend for someone who's ridden horses their whole life, but want to get into mounted bow shooting, competition... I have a recurve bow that's about 25#, if I remember correctly, but my arms are Long... and I'm scared to pull it to far and break it...

[@blacksnapper7684]

I suggest a Korean or Mongolian style bow…..

[@opossum2255]

The Native American suggestion for this question would be a Comanche styled short bow .

[@raynowakowski7539]

I am in the process of building a Lakota bow for a friend's son due to his smaller size. I research and found that the Lakota people were horse people and had bows no longer than 49".

[@whiskersthecat8124]

Did you use Osage Orange for the bow?

[@smcewen7]

Yeah he did,he mentions it at the beginning.

[@jovanniromero8426]

Do you offer bow building class

[@LucioLopez-n4u]

Lo que mas me gusto es como se vio cuando le amarro la cuerda

[@vukpavlovic6611]

The video is one year old, but hopefully, someone is going to answer. :) According to the bow plan, the width of the bow is one inch across the whole length. But when I see the finished bow (or at the beginning also) the tip is clearly narrower than the rest. Can someone explain that to me? Btw, thanks for the great video.

[@vukpavlovic6611]

***At the beginning of the bow-making process, the tip is already narrower. Excuse my lousy English.

[@user-mb4se6km5p]

Have you tried using hide glue instead of wood glue?

[@mikenorris6769]

Do you have issues with string follow with a bow that short?

[@Daylon91]

Good question and observation. If u dont over stress the limbs and know what to look for it's the same as a longbow but for most people getting a shortbow tillered without over stressing the limbs is difficult I've made a short Sioux bow looks exactly like his "comanche bow" same size too. Best bow I've ever made. I get 1/4" to 1/2" string follow the bow is 39-40# at 19.5"

[@metroplexchl]

Amazing

[@severinevans346]

When a Cherokee man by the name of Noel Grayson taught our class on bow making it was a longbow. Did Cherokee's use a shortbow? If so I didn't know this.

[@Mwwright79]

There are short bows on record, 50 something inches to over 6’. This is an abnormally short bow and would be more of a plains horse bow just in the eastern woodlands selfbow style.

[@severinevans346]

@@Mwwright79 50 inches is considered a shortbow? Interesting didn't know that either. But bows and making them are always fun to me.

[@tanyagastineau]

Okay, you are showing photos of native head dresses that belong to other tribes. It is my understanding that the Cherokee people did not wear them unless they were doing a show for the public later in the years. Perhaps, speak to the elders of the Cherokee tribe on this.

[@hatfieldmccoy0311]

I am an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee from the Snowbird area. We didn't traditionally wear warbonnets, in the early 1900's to about 1970's there became a pan Indian look, you see the Cherokee, Muscogee Creek, Shawnee, Lenape, in the Six Nations alot of war bonnets because that was the popular look and drew attention to people for tourists. Traditionally we would wear a scalplock with beaded garters tied in along with bunches of feathers sometimes a roach made of a white tail deer dyed red, and latern18th century after being in England and told to cover their heads because the English didn't like the scalp lock and tattooes so they covered it with fancy fabrics and that was the start of the turban among the Cherokee

[@nateermine2849]

Where do you get your Osage orange wood? Can you sell me a piece of Osage orange?

[@nazariarchery]

Good👍👍

[@jadeddragon4254]

BC and AD. There I fixed your error for you.

[@PrimitiveLifeways]

What are you even talking about?

[@--press]

I did not realize that a table/ bench vise was part of primitive lifeways...

[@PrimitiveLifeways]

Well yeah..... It is

[@--press]

@@PrimitiveLifeways I think the word primitive would disagree

[@PrimitiveLifeways]

@@--press Where is the video of you making a bow with just stone tools? Instead of bitching, show how it is done.

[@terryfinley7760]

That is a very very nice bow but not what I would call a Cherokee bow. It is much too short and too narrow. A proper Cherokee D bow would be approximately 62 inches long between nocks and one and three-quarter inches wide minimum. But, that is not to say that your bow is not a very nice bow! Shoots great!

[@karenrynearson1250]

I guess you missed the intro where he said that. 😄

[@PrimitiveLifeways]

Great points. In the intro I mentioned this is a shorter version. The Cherokee bow is a long bow. This one is a scaled down version but the same "D" shape and measurement system.

[@raynowakowski7539]

I have made quite a few Cherokee bows and have received an approval from Noel Grayson who is a Cherokee National Treasure in Oklahoma. Most of my Cherokee bows are 62-70".

[@raynowakowski7539]

@@PrimitiveLifeways been trying to email you but Jeff@PrimativeLifeways comes back as "not found"

[@NCWoodlandRoamer]

I would say that 1 and 3/4” is a bit too wide for a Cherokee bow from what I have seen.

[@luisclaudiofaria8718]

Magnífico,muito bom..

[@terrywright6076]

But the first pic isn’t accurate we didemt make headdresses only puffed ones but great vid tho

[@terrywright6076]

And camanche!

[@clintjohnson5024]

I was hoping to see a more authentic process, but good work

[@opossum2255]

Scraping with chert takes forever . Probably doesn’t have time for that

[@PrimitiveLifeways]

If I used stone tools, I would still be working on this bow. Notice I used metal hand tools which are just one step up from stone. As far as the bow, this is simply a shorter version. The measurements, shape, and design is the same. Thank you for watching.

[@timkaldahl]

It's not the "Trail of Tears." It's the "Trail of Tears and Death."

[@burstfireno1617]

What anglo saxons did to the indians is the worst genocide in the history of man kind

[@chrishultgren777]

The Spanish don't count? Hernando Cortez is forgotten?

[@DDP24]

They called em slaves

[@Daylon91]

@@DDP24 who the whites? Lol no they called us braves and scalp lifters lol slaves....

[@caseysmith544]

That or what the white Spanish did to the people who are now Catalonian and were Muslim.

[@Alejandro-te2nt]

Brace height is like nothing

[@GeorgeShook-su8fs]

😅 that is not a true rat tail file . That is a chainsaw file, rat tail file is tapered

[@PrimitiveLifeways]

This one is tapered an has a rat tail. Im astonished that is the only thing you took away from this whole video.

[@jeremiahthomas2050]

This would have been better if real native, made this. The way you explain what to do is too long. Just watching you is making me so mad

[@Daylon91]

Lmao:D u have no patience clearly. Maybe take a chill pill and a sleepy time tea 🍵

[@caseysmith544]

Use the North American weed from USA, the low strength stuff.