How did the plains Indians use bow and arrows?

Answer 1

The short bows used by Plains tribes in hunting and warfare were designed specifically for use on horseback. Some bows were made of a single piece of wood, perhaps 4 feet (122 cms) long; other were composite bows of wood and sinew; or wood, horn and sinew as short as 30 inches (76 cms), with arrows between 22 and 28 inches (56 - 70 cms) long.

Bows were often held almost horizontally in the left hand or diagonally, not vertically as in European Archery. Arrows were kept in a quiver which could be pulled around to the front of the body so it lay horizontally over the rear of the horse's neck, arrow fletchings pointing to the archer's right. He would take out 2 arrows - 1 would be gripped in the mouth and the other fitted to the bowstring.

Having the second arrow in the mouth allowed for a very rapid second shot after the first was loosed - in warfare this second shot might save his life, while in hunting a second shot was often needed quickly to finish off a wounded animal.

Different tribes had different ways of holding the arrows on the string: these are termed primary, secondary, tertiary, Mediterranean, oriental and Mongolian releases based on the way he fingers and thumb are used. The Crows, Blackfoot, Cheyennes, Arapahos, Comanches and Assiniboines used the tertiary release involving the thumb and just two fingers.

A veteran Texas Ranger who had been in many fights with outlaws and Comanches stated very firmly that he would rather face a white man armed with a six-shot revolver than a Comanche armed with a bow and a quiver full of dogwood arrows; the Comanche was more accurate, could shoot further and faster and the injury sustained by an arrow was more likely to kill (either immediately or as a result of blood poisoning from even a minor wound).