Hello,

My name is John, I am from western Massachusetts...I am interested in primitive technology, history, and anthropology. I also do living history as a hobby and am researching doing a portrayal of a Native person at the time of De Soto's "excursions" through the southeast.....I am trying to find info on the weapons and armour used by the Native people and the Spanish during this time period.....If anyone else is interested in this topic, please let me know...Thank You...

I studied archaeology under David Halley and Charles Hudson MANY years ago, and their focus was on these people.

This is all based on my very foggy memory: From their remains bows figured big in their arsenal, and the creation of arrow heads kept them pretty busy, considering how many half-made ones you find in a village. Blow guns were also used, as well as pecked stone axes, flint knives and atlatls. Spears/lances as well. I don't know about clubs, but presumably so. From memory atlatl may have figured more into the arsenal of the SE tribes I studied than arrows, but this could also be because the more robust points of atlatl darts survived better than arrow heads, or because they were using arrows without heads.

As for armor- I'm unfamiliar with any. Check the sources below.

Remember that in general the SE Indians in the time of Desoto would have had rigid social castes, and that there is some evidence for professional specialization among them. Some of the highest class individuals may not have ever walked- they might have been carried everywhere!

There are three accounts by people who accompanied DeSoto, and these have a lot of information in them. They are freely available on the Internet. Also, I strongly suggest picking up the outstanding book The Southeastern Indians by Charles M Hudson (1976) if you can find it. I've got a Time Life book that I used as a textbook in a Master's Level course, believe it or not, and it has outstanding general information about American Indians in general. From memory it is called America's Fascinating Indian Heritage. I highly recommend it as well.

I can't recommend the book "Sun Circles and Human Hands" enough. It's a bit old but it's the best book I've seen on the Southeastern tribes.

I don't have time right now, but I'll get my books out and see what I can find later today or tomorrow.

For the info...i actually do have a copy of Mr Hudsons book somewhere in my collection......I will go out to find the other sources you mentioned......

Garcilaso de la Vega wrote that the Amerindians de Soto and company encountered preferred the bow above all else but were familiar with a wide variety of weapons: pikes, lances, darts (dardos), partisans (partesanas), two-handed swords (montante), slings, clubs, and so on. It's unclear exactly what this means, as I doubt they had partisans made of steel or wielded in the Italian fashion!

I wasn't sure on the use of slings or darts......interesting...I plan sometime hopefully in the not too distant future to test some Native weapons on period European armour....helmets, breast plates, maybe some mock up padded stuff....and make a video....---john


Also found this website.....info based on period accounts...some of it repeats what has already been stated

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cmamcrk4/pkt2.html

Maybe this would be of some help:
Primitive American armor (1895) by Hough, Walter, 1859-1935
link to free e-book
http://www.archive.org/details/primitiveamer00hougrich