Case No. 1:

Made of wild cane and six feet long, this type blow gun was used for shooting poison darts. Some guns are as long as twenty feet. A blow gun is extraordinary in that it has for example, the power to shoot a dart a quarter of an inch into a pine door. This power is probably due to the choke bore design of the gun.

The darts are fifteen to eighteen inches long and are made of locust wood. They are sharpened and hardened over a flame at one end and, at the opposite end are wrapped at an angle with the silk from a thistle plant. As the air is blown into the gun the thistle silk fluffs and creates a shoulder to blow against. The dart is retarded in its movement by the taper of the bore. It is not known what implement was employed to produce this tapered bore.

Many years ago this type blow gun, with poison darts, was used in warfare by the Cherokee, Choctaw, Catawaba, and Houma tribes. Displayed with the blow gun and darts is the basket quiver which held the darts. These specimens were brought to Oklahoma before 1860, by the grandfather of Jim Backwater. (See Plate 21)