The Western Indians are fonder of horseback riding than the Eastern tribes, and have learned to wield their weapons while mounted.  They are taught to kill game while running at full speed, and prefer to fight on horseback.  Some of them are great cowards when dismounted, but seated on an Indian pony they are undaunted.

It is a mistake to suppose that arrow-heads are no longer manufactured; the art of fashioning them is not lost.  Almost every tribe manufactures its own.  Bowlders of flint are broken with a sledge-hammer made of a rounded pebble of hornstone set in a twisted withe.  This bone is thought to be the tooth of the sperm whale.  In Oregon the Indian arrow is still pointed with flint.  The Iroquois also used flint until they laid aside the arrow for the lack of anything to hunt.  The Iroquois youth, though the rifle has been introduced largely into his tribe, will have none of it, but takes naturally to the bow and arrow.  Steel for arrow-heads is furnished by the fur-traders in the Rocky Mountains, and iron heads are often made from old barrel hoops, fashioned with a piece of sandstone.  In shooting with the bow and arrow on horseback, the Indian horse is taught to approach the animal attacked on the right side, enabling its rider to throw the arrow to the left.  Buffalo Bill was an adept at slaughtering game on horseback, and he won his great bet at killing the greatest number of buffaloes, by following the custom of the Indians and shooting to the left.  The horse approaches the animal, his halter hanging loose upon his neck, bringing the rider within three or four paces of the game, when the arrow or rifle ball is sent with ease and certainty through the heart.

Indians who have the opportunity to ride nowadays, still exercise with a lance twelve or fifteen feet in length.  In their war games and dances they always appear with this lance and shield.  The spears are modern and have a blade of polished steel, and the shields are made of skin.  Those of old make are of buffalo neck.  The skin is soaked and hardened with a glue extracted from the hoofs.  The shields are arrow-proof, and will throw off a rifle shot if held obliquely, and this the Indian can do with great skill.  Since there is no war or the occasion for the use of these arms, except in games of practice, many of the Indians, for a few bottles of “fire water,” have sold their best shields, and now they are seen scattered over the country, preserved as curios.

It is folly to assume that the Indians have wholly or partly done away with their barbaric customs.  In their celebrations it is their great joy to cast off their clothing and to paint their bodies all colors of the rainbow, wear horns on their heads and make themselves look as hideous as possible.  The arrow game is introduced—­never are there demonstrations with the modern weapons—­and the man is esteemed above all others who can throw the greatest number of arrows in the sky before the first one falls.  In hunting, the Sioux kill muskrats with spears, as they did in early days spear the buffaloes, managing to get close to them by being dressed in wolf skin, and going on all fours.  There are Indians who would, on horseback, attack and kill a bear with a lance, but are afraid to molest the animal unless they have the Indian pony as a means of escape.