Ask the Scholar

While at the rendezvous of trappers, Miller had frequent opportunities to observe "trials of skill," one of the Indians' chief amusements. Of course, they bet on the results - beaver pelts against blankets, beads against wampum, pipes against tobacco. "This proceeds," Miller wrote, "until at last the very dresses they have on are placed in the scale of chances, sometimes reducing the poor devils almost to the condition of Adam, gambling being one of their strong passions."The contests themselves - marksmanship with the elk-horn bow - were usually conducted on a calm day over a distance of thirty to forty yards. The arrows, shown being made by the figure at the left, were tipped with flint or iron, with a neat and balanced feather on the end. With the elk-horn bow they could "drive an arrow completely through a buffalo," Miller claimed. The targets shown in this sketch were circles two or three inches in circumference.