Native / Indian Horn? Where To Research?

[DougS]

Hello,

I picked up this horn from Jack Duprey, along with some other very nice original horns.

Jack thought this might be a native horn, as the horn appears to have remnants of red paint painted on the horn, along with what might be paint that was "painted" on the horn using a hand print. The horn measures approx. 14" and has a very beautiful curve, and twist.

The horn is light and very thin so you can see the amount of powder in it.

It looks like iron nails secure the wooden plug, and an iron nail for the strap attachment.

Does anyone know where a good place to start research of native horns?

Thank you,

Doug

[Tim Crosby]

 Nice looking horn. Grinslade shows some Indian and a painted horn in his book, Powder Horns Documents Of History It would probably be hard, if not impossible to tell if a horn was Indian made, used or decorated. Undoubtedly they were picked up after a battle or attack. You will see paint or traces of it on many horns. Have you tried a Google search or searching past auctions at auction house sites?
 Good luck, let us know what you find.
    Tim C.

[DougS]

Hi Tim,

No I really wasn't sure where to begin?

I'm sure there are many layers of "onion" to peel on this subject.

Do you know where a copy of Grinslade's book can be found?

Thank you for the reply.

Doug

[Tim Crosby]

 Once again I would suggest a Google search.

  https://www.amazon.com/Powder-Horns-Documents-Tom-Grinslade/dp/1880655233

   This one mentions Indian lore:

  https://peachstatearchaeologicalsociety.org/index.php/23-fur-trade-goods/341-powder-horns

  Tim C.

[DougS]

Thank you Tim,

Good Advice.

Am looking at right now.

Doug

[Notchy Bob]

I am not an expert, by any means, nor do I know of any published systematic studies of American Indian powder horns.  However, I can tell you there are a lot of horns with native provenance in private and public collections.  If you want to look at a variety of them, good places to start would be some of the museum collections databases online.  No two of these databases have identical formats, so you may have to fiddle with them a bit and experiment with different search terms to find what you're looking for. 

The American Museum of Natural History has a very user-friendly format, and may be a good place to start.  Try this link:  AMNH Anthropology Collections  Fill in the appropriate spaces in the box on the left side of the screen, click "Search,"... and wait.  This site is slow!  However, they have a bunch of horns.  This is a nice one collected from the Malecite people:



Another is the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian):  NMNH Database Keyword Search

Again, type in your search term and start the search.  You'll get a listing of individual items, which may require some sifting to get what you want, but it may be worth it.  This horn from the NMNH came from the Comanche, and it is a beauty:



There are others, and I keep finding more all the time.  I would suggest you do Google searches.  Type in the museum of choice (e.g. Burke Museum or McCord Museum) and add "collections database" and Google should take you where you need to go.

Good luck!  If you find something interesting, or see some kind of pattern developing, by all means let us know.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob

[DougS]

Thanks for the updates.

Will be looking at.

Regards,

Doug

[Belleville]

[Cory Joe Stewart]

A friend of mine is an anthropologist specializing in north and southeastern tribes.  He was flipping through my collection of powder horn books with that very same thing in mind.  There were a few horns that I thought specifically might be Native but in most cases he disagreed.  What he was looking at was not just the style, but also what was on the horn.  For example one had an owl on it.  He said that a Native American would never carry anything with an owl on it because they are seen as a bad omen.  I then replied with, what if the intent was to show that the contents of the horn can do bad things and he said that may make sense.  Other images like turtles would be more likely.  Even with geometric patterns there can be evidence in tiny details.  For example he mentioned parallel running lines being common on artifacts and even tattooing, bands around arms and legs etc. 

Another issue to keep in mind is the understanding of the market at the time.  I was talking with Wallace Gussler years ago and question about serpent side plates on trade guns came up and Gussler pointed out that Native Americans saw power in serpents (which they did) so knowing what the consumer liked, the European gunmakers built to suit the market. 

Point being, many of the horns that we may think are Native, may be made by white hands with an understanding of what Natives liked and wanted. 

It doesn't really answer your question, I think I just muddied the water a little bit, which can be fun too.

Cory Joe Stewart