Did the Cherokee peoples ever seriously use the sling? From what I've heard from others it was just a child's toy. I just don't think that it makes sense for all other indian nations to use the sling and the cherokees not ever using it. So did the cherokee indians ever use the sling as a weapon for hunting or war? :-?

When I talk about cherokees, I mean eastern woodland NC cherokees, not the texans

I'm sure the texan ones used them a lot in the desert considering the apaches and comanches ran around with em.

Before the bow and arrow arrived, the sling was a companion weapon to the atlatl and dart.  It was probably used to hunt waterfowl and birds in a flock, such as passenger pigeons.  It was probably also used for small game hunting, how much is anybodys' guess. 

The problem is the slings were organic and most didn't survive, and the ammo was rocks or clay balls, even if the latter were found, there is no clue to what they were used for. 

That seems to make sense.

Though I wonder, if the guy writing about the apache style on this site's guise/how-to's page was telling the truth, then the apaches used the sling to hunt deer also. I wonder if other tribes, i.e. cherokee, did this too. :-?

It is worth noting that the Cherokee and many other southeastern tribes had the rivercane blowgun for their small game hunting.

yeah I know all about the blowgun. I'm actually pretty deadly accurate with mine. I could nail a squirrel-sized target form 40-50yds in practice. In hunting conditions however  30yds is pushing it.

Clotheshanger darts and aluminum tubing. Pool Noodle quiver and bare pipe (no mouthpiece). This is my setup

I just realized that I still have a blowgun lying around, as well as a squirrel and pigeon problem... >:D

Magnesium-alumnium tubing man.
It doesn't bend easily, and its very springy, 1/8th inch thick walls, 1/2 diam... 5 feet long. weighs about 2-3 oz, never did weigh it. super-smooth bore. a little cotton with rouge on a dremel accomplished that :)
darts are usually skewers....
here is the thing- I suck with it. I used to be decent, but since I got braces...
got any advice on accuracy?

Do you know the technique of aiming it, or do you try shooting instinctively?

If you know how to aim it, it's just like a rifle, pretty hard to be bad with it.

Focus your eyes where you see two images of your blowgun and put your target in between them (or under for distance)

TheSlingin-Injun wrote on Dec 27^th, 2013 at 10:47am:

Do you know the technique of aiming it, or do you try shooting instinctively? If you know how to aim it, it's just like a rifle, pretty hard to be bad with it. Focus your eyes where you see two images of your blowgun and put your target in between them (or under for distance)

Never tried that one.
Always just kinda shot.
Now... I tried it, and it makes a pretty big difference.
Thanks!

The problem with the blowgun is that your mouth is not under your aiming eye.

That's easy to solve.

Just curve the mouthpiece end.  Now you can put sights on the tube. 

timothy42b wrote on Dec 31^st, 2013 at 9:43am:

The problem with the blowgun is that your mouth is not under your aiming eye. That's easy to solve. Just curve the mouthpiece end.  Now you can put sights on the tube.

Intriguing Timothy... Have you tried this?

timothy42b wrote on Dec 31^st, 2013 at 9:43am:

The problem with the blowgun is that your mouth is not under your aiming eye. That's easy to solve. Just curve the mouthpiece end.  Now you can put sights on the tube.

You wouldn't be able to load it unless you dropped it down the front, which would require less airtight ammunition = less accuracy and power.

That's easy.  Curved mouthpiece that fits over the tube.  It's not as if this were rapid fire. 

timothy42b wrote on Jan 17^th, 2014 at 1:13pm:

That's easy.  Curved mouthpiece that fits over the tube.  It's not as if this were rapid fire.

Also, even if the mouthpiece is curved, a fairly short and/or flexible dart works fine.

From Cherokee to Blowgun, in three posts. A record has been set.

TheSlingin-Injun wrote on Jan 6^th, 2014 at 11:06am:

timothy42b wrote on Dec 31st, 2013 at 9:43am: The problem with the blowgun is that your mouth is not under your aiming eye. That's easy to solve. Just curve the mouthpiece end.  Now you can put sights on the tube.  You wouldn't be able to load it unless you dropped it down the front, which would require less airtight ammunition = less accuracy and power.

Not really. Just blow from the muzzle end until it's settled. Or if the kinks are way too sharp and abrupt for a dart to get through via breath alone (PVC pipe with 90-degree bends), then you could just gently suck in through your teeth (just in case) from the mouth end.

I'm loving that focus technique for aiming the blowgun! I had kind of discovered something similar when messing with different ways of pointing at the target with my non-sling hand, but results weren't really apparent within the 10 minute span I played with it.
Now I can probably try to make a fabulously-Macklmore squirrel fur coat 8-)



As for slings, I don't know how the Cherokee used them. Most North American tribes seem to treat it as anything from a small-game/avian hunting weapon, to a novelty for amusement, or something. This has always interested me, because as we all know, the sling is capable of killing creatures as large as cows and horses. My best guess is perhaps they found weapons that telegraph less, and could be used from cover/in a crouch were more practical for most hunting applications?
I only know of two throwing methods that have been explicitly linked with Native-Americans, albeit post-contact:
That overhand throw from the Apache sling article, and that vertical/overhand Byzantine style from that "In the Beginning, Man Threw Rocks" video on YouTube. (Curiously enough, the old man in the video claims to have learned from a Cherokee. Probably not concrete evidence of serious use by them, but interesting nonetheless.)

Both are single rotation, and brief: probably the best you'll get for general hunting applications with the sling. just food for thought :)

Here's a little something I found with a brief and lazy Google search from work:
http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-indian-weapons-tools/sling-shots.htm

Nothing particularly amazing about the info itself, but it has some interesting points of view every here and there. Too bad it's so vague, and not tribe-specific in any way. :P

Aiming is easy, keep both eyes open and blow with tube pointed at target. If close dead on, as targets get further out raise the barrel. It takes practice, but is like shooting a pea shooter. At very close range, say 25 feet as a kid, I would nail cicadas to my dad's tree, they would buzz and spin like a living sheesh-ka-bob! Watching a show on SA natives, when I was a kid, they showed a gent hunting with a 9 foot blowgun, straight up. They would pop dinner from trees, but up, the obvious issue is swallowing a poisoned dart. Toxins were placed on the outside of the dart, and there was a notch cut out so you one could smear neurotoxin on the spot, and while the flesh would wipe away a lot, what was in the notch stayed there, paralyzing the animal, fall to the ground usually finished it off, or a thorough neck snap, knife slash.

On a job site in Manhattan I was boared, I took 8 inch lenghts of #10 AWG solid copper wire and rolled them betwixt two random pieces of 3/4 inch plywood, (to straighten them). Piece of tape and fluff of chinese take out napkins (cheapest there are), were the darts, the blow pipe was 1/2 inch emt, (which is a soldered tube, you can see it inside). Target was a few pictures of my least favorite politicians up against a sheet of 3/4 plywood. I shot maybe 10 rounds when the GC came by and asked to see my handy work. He was amazed, most of the shots hit the heads and went through, (barely), the plywood. from muzzle tip to the plywood about 30 or so feet. It takes a lot of practice to hit accurately, but even more to develop lung capacity to do that. My steel darts were way way more deadly IF you could do a head shot, although in fairness if you were hit with a copper dart in the solar plexus, I guarantee you would NOT be a happy camper. If a toxin were applied, you die. Puncture an artery and you will have serious problem, possible death over time.

The pipe I had sat on a scaffold, my store bought one was a rigid hard aluminum pipe with a perfect inside surface, and theoretically polymer treated. You do not need to have a perfect interior surface, the fluff ball will not care and the shaft never touches it in motion.

A friend who bought one from me shot a pidgeon sitting next to an old lady on a park pench from the balcony of his moms house, (2nd floor). When she noticed the bird impaled to the bench she richeously went nuts and ran to get cops. My two pals ran out and plucked the dead bird and dart,(you need plyers to remove it), mangled the seat enough so the dart hole was not visible, and ran to his cohort's house. When the cops arrived they did a big walk around and rang door bells, but then they gave up. All the while the woman looked like she was going to blow out an artery in her neck.

Good thing he became a lawyer!

Ahhh, the simple joys of life in the city!

ciao

sparkie

Officially necro'd, as well as me (havent been on this site in a year or so)

I am going to bump ya up here. :) Have you tried contacting the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah  Oklahoma ?

http://webtest2.cherokee.org/About-The-Nation/Visiting/Cherokee-Heritage-Center

Blowgun aiming is the same as slinging, close your eyes and use the 'force'

Isn’t blowgun aiming close to what you are doing with a gun? The distance from your mouth to your eyes is negligible and pretty close to the distance from a riffle barrel to the aim, right?

https://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2017/05/blowguns-the-first-airguns/

go to aiming a blowgun.
blowgun aiming happens instinctively but is based mainly on image I'd say it's similar but different than bow or gun with which you use mainly your dominant eye.

That looks really cool.
Is not using your dominant eye a disadvantage?

The idea of using your dominant eye comes into play if you're using sights.  A bow can actually be broken into two methods.  If you're using a modern style bow, such as a compound bow, it will have sights that can be used to aim.  This can also be done with a more traditional style bow by using your arrow head as an aiming point.  But when using a bow without sights, instinctive shooting can be used.  With this method you will look at your target with both eyes.  As to whether either method is an advantage or disadvantage, it depends on the shooter and what the weapon is set up to do.