RECALLING THE BATTLE DAYS

In movies about America's wild west we often see portrayals of Indian raids wherein literally thousands of deadly arrows are showered down upon wagon trains or military forts. I've always been a bit skeptical when I see scenes such as this, for I know that constructing the flint points for spears and arrows must have been a slow and tedious task for these tribes. It's very unlikely that Indian raiding parties would have been so wasteful of their ammunition, as they doubtless would fear running short of time and resources required to replenish their supplies of spears, hatchets and arrows for the next encounter. Surely they'd not want to risk getting caught knapping between battles.

Gary Hallock