Martial Arts: Indigenous Use of Shields and Body Armor in 18th-20th Century North and Central America
Nearly two hundred years before Neo, the hero of the Matrix films, extended his consciousness to render bullets harmless in his ostensive reality, Comanche chief and medicine man Po-bish-e-quash-o (Iron Jacket) adopted a similar approach whereby he could apparently deflect bullets with his breath. The Spanish armor he wore could only have bolstered his invincibility. Until it didn't.
One of the greatest scenic and dramatic incidents occurring in the history of Indian warfare in Texas was enacted on the 12th of May, 1858, on the South Canadian, near Antelope Hills. This section had long been the home of the fierce and warlike Comanche Nation, and from that place they set out on their forays into Texas. It was also their place of refuge, where they felt secure from the attacks of Texas Rangers or United States soldiers. Pohebits Quasho, or "Iron Jacket," so termed from the fact that he wore a coat of mail, a curious and antique piece of armor, probably stripped from the body of some Spanish solder killed in battle more than a century previous, and preserved during all the intervening years by the Comanche tribe as a trophy of their prowess in the field and their success in meeting the Spanish men at arms on the Mexican border. "Iron Jacket" posed as a great "medicine man," or prophet, and declared himself to be invulnerable to rifle balls or arrows directed against his person, as by a magic breath he was able to make the missiles fall harmless at his feet.
John S. Ford, commander of the combined force of Texas Rangers and their Native American allies from the Tonkawa, Tehuacana, Shawnee, Delaware, and Waco tribes fighting the Comanches at the Battle of Antelope Hills, recalled what happened when Iron Jacket asserted his mystical authority over projectiles on that particular occasion.
At daybreak, I remember, I was standing in the bull wagon road leading to Santa Fe and could see the Canadian river in our front—with eighty lodges just beyond. Counting four men of fighting age to a lodge, that made a possible 320 Indians. Just at sunup an Indian came across the river on a pony. Our Indians down below raised a yell—they always get excited. The Indian heard them—it was very still then. The Indian retreated slowly, and began to ride in a circle. From where I was I could hear him puff like a deer—he was blowing the bullets away from himself—he was a medicine man. I heard five shots from the Jagers with which my Indians were armed. The painted pony of the medicine man jumped ten feet in the air, it seemed to me, and fell over on his rider—then five more Jagers went off, and he was dead.
The Spanish scale mail that had protected Iron Jacket from many an arrow and small-caliber bullet finally yielded to the Jaeger—a heavy German-made percussion rifle of at least .50-caliber suitable for hunting buffalo. The chief's armored breastplate was reported to be on display in the Texas State Library in Austin until it was lost in an 1881 fire. An 1874 description of it also noted a shield Iron Jacket had reportedly carried.
This breastplate is made of small pieces of pointed iron, each about an inch in size, lapping over each other, the whole being about half a yard square. A belt of steel or iron rings was worn with this; together they weighed as much as a strong man could well carry. His shield was a large circular piece of raw hide, or rather two pieces enclosed in a hoop. He believed himself invulnerable. But, alas, one of the conical balls of a patent rifle penetrated the shield, defied the armor and pierced the chest of the great chief. We saw the holes in the shield made by the bullet, and the spot where it entered the breastplate.
Indigenous persons in North and Central America were using personal shields and body armor well before and following the introduction of firearms into armed conflict. The defensive articles took a multitude of forms and relied on principles that are still in use today such as the layering of dissimilar materials. These garments and accessories are marvels of engineering.
Noted artist and ethnologist George Catlin documented the process of "smoking the shield" as both a spiritual and physical ritual for Sioux warriors:
The process of "smoking the shield" is a very curious as well as important one, in their estimation. For this purpose a young man about to construct for him a shield digs a hole of 2 feet in depth in the ground, and as large in diameter as he designs to make his shield. In this he builds a fire, and over it, a few inches higher than the ground, he stretches the rawhide horizontally over the fire, with little pegs driven through holes made near the edges of the skin. The skin is at first twice as large as the size of the required shield, but having got his particular and best friends (who are invited on this occasion) into a ring to dance and sing about it and solicit the Great Spirit to instill into it the power to protect him harmless against his enemies, he spreads over it the glue which is rubbed and dried in, as the skin is heated, and a second busily drives other and other pegs, inside of those in the ground, as they are gradually giving away and being pulled up by the contraction of the skin. By this curious process, which is most dexterously done, the skin is kept tight whilst it contracts to one-half of its size, taking up the glue and increasing its thickness until it is rendered as thick and hard as required (and his friends have pleaded long enough to make it arrow, and almost ball, proof) when the dance ceases and the fire is put out. When it is cooled and cut into the shape that he desires, it is often painted with his medicine or totem upon it, the figure of an eagle, an owl, a buffalo, or other animal, as the case may be, which he trusts will guard and protect him from harm.
In 1893 Walter Hough of the Smithsonian Institution described six types of Indigenous body armor in use in North & Central America: plate armor, slat armor, rod armor, band armor, skin armor, and cotton-padded armor.
Cotton may appear to be an unlikely choice for protective clothing, but it was effective against pointed weapons. Incidentally, the sword depicted beneath the shields in the illustration of early Mexican armor below was made of sharp pieces of flint set into a wooden rod. In combat, it served as a sort of saw.
The defensive arms peculiar to the officers were breast-plates of cotton, one and sometimes two fingers thick, which were arrow-proof; and on this account the Spaniards themselves made use of them in the war against the Mexicans. The name Ichcahuepilli, which the Mexicans gave to this sort of breast-plate, was changed by the Spaniards into the word Escaupil. Over this sort of cuirass, which only covered part of the breast, they put on another piece of armour, which, besides the chest, covered the thighs, and the half of the arms, figures of which appear in the plate representing the Mexican armour. The lords were accustomed to wear a thick upper coat of feathers, over a cuirass made of several plates of gold, or silver gilt, which rendered them invulnerable, not only by arrows, but even by darts or swords, as the anonymous conqueror affirms.
Besides the armour which they wore for the defence of their chests, their arms, their thighs, and even their legs; their heads were usually cased in the heads of tygers, or serpents, made of wood, or some other substance, with the mouth open, and furnished with large teeth that they might inspire terror, and so animated in appearance, that the above mentioned author says, they seem to be vomiting up the soldiers. All the officers and nobles wore a beautiful plume of feathers on their heads, in order to add to the appearance of their stature. The common soldiers went entirely naked, except the maxtlatl, or girdle, which covered the private parts; but they counterfeited the dress which they wanted by different colours, with which they painted their bodies. The European historians, who express so much wonder at this, have not observed how common the same practice was among the ancient nations of Europe itself.
It's natural that Iron Jacket would turn Spanish armor to his own use, but there was an unusual innovation of colonial oppression that was not readily available to Central American and Southwestern tribes—the use of "war dogs." These were not the "bloodhounds" with which we're familiar today but much larger mastiffs and other quick, powerful, breeds wearing studded leather armor and spiked collars. Textile armor slowed these terrifying creatures down but did not stop them.
Aperreado is a Spanish word which in the days when Spain was busy with the conquest of the West Indies and Central America struck cold terror to the hearts of the Indians. The word means "given to the dogs," or, to translate it yet more distinctly, it means death by bloodhounds.
In Spain magnificent specimens of this canine race have always been bred, and when Columbus set out on his first voyage a few fine hounds constituted part of his fighting equipment. Not knowing with what enemies he might have to contend, he took the hounds along to aid his men, but Columbus was one of the few invaders coming from Spain who treated the Indians humanely, and not until after he had gone back to Europe, broken and disgraced, were the hounds used to torture the poor savages.
On all the dogs as well as the horses the Spaniards brought over with them the Indians looked with fear and reverence. The West Indian savages had not only never seen animals so large, but the fact that both dogs and horses performed tasks and obeyed masters filled the natives with respectful amazement.
Their interest in these new brutes was soon, however, turned to dismay when the horses' iron-shod hoofs struck down women and children and the dogs were employed in battle. So ferocious and effective were these canine warriors as taught by their Christian masters that in Cuba one dog was more feared than a hundred armed men.
When Cortez took his famous first expedition into Mexico, a fine pack of bloodhounds was among his most highly valued fighters. Pizarro also took hounds into Peru, but on the continent the native warriors wore a sort of armor made of padded cotton cloth. Through this the dogs could not set their teeth, but they could spring easily as high as a warrior's throat, run in among the men and by butting vigorously cause them to fall, or, more horrible still, they were encouraged to prowl over the battlefields and tear to pieces any wretched wounded Indian who showed the least sign of life.
It should be noted that Columbus was not necessarily "humane" in his treatment of native peoples.
A terra-cotta statue depicting the use of cotton armor prior to colonization was displayed in 1900 in America's Museum of Natural History.
One of the most interesting curiosities lately added to the Museum of Natural History in this city is a life-size statue of a prehistoric American in armor.
Visitors who go there will learn that men in armor are not confined to the effete monarchies of Europe. The time when Americans wore this sort of clothing began ages before the oldest suit of armor in the Tower of London.
This terra cotta figure was found by an Indian in a cave near the modern city of Texcoco. It was broken in a number of pieces when found, and with these fragments were portions belonging to two other figures of a similar character.
The figure is approximately life size, and represents a man with arms extended and mouth opened as if singing or shouting. The hands show that each formally grasped some object; the ends of the fingers are broken off. The body is dressed in quilted armor, the head is artificially flattened.
It seems evident that we have, in this remarkable specimen of art in terra cotta, the actual portrait or statue of some distinguished war chief of the old Alcolhuan tribe, dressed in armor, and very probably having in his hands his sword and shield.
This statue carries us back to the days when the American Continent possessed a civilization of its own that has disappeared more completely than that of ancient Egypt or Assyria.
Then there were kings who wore golden crowns and knights in armor and temples and palaces and the very memory of which bewilders the imagination with their size and splendor. These men were learned in the arts of painting and sculpture and architecture and in the sciences of warfare and engineering and mechanics. They had a religion concerning which little is known, but in which the worship of the sun played a great part.
Little by little American archaeologists are putting together the scanty relics of this dim past and constructing a picture of a lost civilization that will be of deep interest to the world.
In 1895, Hough described a variety of defensive garments including shields and helmets used by Indigenous persons in North and Central America both before and after the introduction of European firearms.
The ancient Mexicans had shields of flexible bamboo canes, bound firmly together and covered with hide. The face of the defensive instrument was ornamented according to the rank and taste of the wearer—that of a noble was usually covered with thin plates of gold. Along the coast the shells of tortoises, inlaid with gold, silver or copper, were used as shields. Reeds, grass or hides, coated with India rubber, served to protect the Aztec common soldier. The body armor of the warriors of rank consisted of a breastplate made of wood, covered with leather or gold plates and trimmed with feathers. Among the Toltecs private soldiers painted the upper parts of their bodies to represent armor.
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In the National museum is a very extraordinary armor coat from Sitka, Alaska, which has the form of a waistcoat fastened with brass buttons of English make. It is plated over the entire front part of the back with Chinese coins—like the "penny armor" of Europe. The coins are like those brought to America by the Chinese for use in gambling. Among the Eskimo in former days armor made of plates of walrus ivory was used. Sometimes a yoke of skin fitting the neck and shoulders formed support for the rows of plates.
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Among certain Indians of New Mexico shields were made of small laths interwoven with cords in such a manner that they could be shut up like a fan. The Pueblo tribes carried circular shields of basketry. The Sioux shield was made of the skin of the buffalo's neck, hardened with glue extracted from the hoofs of the same animal.Captain Cook noticed that the Tlingits and Haidas of the Northwest coast incased almost their entire bodies in armor of wood or leather. They wore helmets with curiously carved visors, and made breastplates of wood and arrow-proof coats of thin, flexible strips bound with strings, like a woman's stays.
In 1891 at the Hopewell Mound Group in Chillicothe, Ohio, archaeologists found a skeleton clad entirely in copper armor dating from between 100 BCE and 200 CE.
Mr. Warren K. Morehead and Dr. Cresson, who have been prosecuting excavations here for the last three months in the interests of the World's fair, have just made one of the richest finds of the century in the way of pre-historic remains. These gentlemen have confined their excavation to the Hopewell farm, seven miles from here, upon which are located some twenty odd Indian mounds.
On Saturday they were at work on a mound 500 feet in length, 200 feet wide and twenty-eight feet in height. At the depth of ten feet, near the center of the mound, they exhumed the massive skeleton of a man which was encased in a veritable copper armor. The head was covered by an oval shaped copper cap. The jaws had copper mouldings, and the arms were dressed in copper. Copper plates covered the chest and stomach. On each side of the head on protruding sticks were wooden antlers ornamented with copper. The mouth was stuffed with genuine pearls of immense size, but much decayed by the ravages of time. Around the neck was a necklace of bear's teeth set with pearls. At the side of the male skeleton was also found a female skeleton, the two supposed to be man and wife. It is estimated that the bodies were buried where they were found fully 600 years ago.
The armored skeleton found in Ohio was unusual but not unique. In 1899 the armored skeleton of a French soldier was found during excavations of a pre-Algonquin or Beothuk Native American village on the coast of Maine.
One of the most interesting finds this year on Campbell's Island was the skeleton of a Frenchman in complete armor of steel, laid apparently, with the greatest honor beside a chief of the tribe, with all the accoutrements of warfare. The body of the Indian chief had been buried with great care, and the skeleton was in a fair state of preservation. It was sewed up in birch bark, and about the neck were strings of beads and wampum. Near at hand were an unusual number of tomahawks, arrows and spears, showing that the chief was a powerful man in the tribe. The fact that the armored Frenchman was buried with honors beside a distinguished chief leads Prof. Cushman to believe that he probably had lived with the tribe, and by his presence in battle, became a chief among them.
Another armored skeleton was found by a woman in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1831. In his 1841 poem, "The Skeleton in Armor," Henry Wadsworth Longfellow posited a romantic Norse backstory for these human remains, but their ethnic origin was never conclusively determined before they were lost in a fire in 1843.
On being unearthed the object was found to be the skeleton of a human being, clothed in brass armor and buried in a sitting posture, facing the east. The bones were those of a tall, large-framed man. The knees were drawn up toward the breast and the forearms were drawn to the shoulders. From the head down the figure was wrapped in a sort of shroud of woven bark, seven varieties having been used in its construction. All of it, however, crumbled to dust and vanished on exposure to the air. The armor upon the skeleton was made of fine brass, and beside it were six arrows of brass, thin, flat and triangular in shape. These arrows were in a sort of quiver of bark, which dropped to pieces on exposure to the air.
The skeleton was carefully examined by local physicians—Dr. Wilbur and Dr. Glazier—who came to the conclusion that it was that of an Indian, and that it had lain in the ground 150 years. The bones were gathered up and, with the brass arrow tips, were placed in a case with a glass cover and deposited in the Fall River atheneum. There the skeleton lay in state until destroyed by the great fire of 1843.
From the examples above, it's clear that body armor was well suited to the physical and martial circumstances in the Americas prior to European colonization. With the introduction of iron and steel, firearms, and horses, Indigenous warriors appropriated foreign armor and adapted their own designs to incorporate and resist the new weapons and tactics.
Armor was often a signifier of esteem or ferocity as well as a functional defensive article. For example, gorgets originally designed to protect the bearer's throat were sometimes given to American Indians by the U.S. government although large medallions were more common.
It's notable that body armor was not standard issue during the U.S. Civil War. Its cost, the limitations it imposed on mobility, and the perception that its bearers lacked courage conspired to render its use rare and covert.
We'll conclude with a humorous article wherein the Native Americans themselves were defeated by homespun armor—on a cow. In 1891 a tale was recounted of a South Dakotan blacksmith who grew tired of depredations on his livestock. So he added many ounces of prevention to his dairy cow.
The complete armor weighed about 300 lbs. When everything was finished, the cow was led out to the Ferguson homestead and allowed to graze about in the neighborhood on the dry prairie grass, there being but little snow. She soon became accustomed to the coat of mail and paid no attention to it. Twice a day she would go into Buffalo Gap to drink at the town pump, and it was an interesting sight to see her come stalking down the centre of the main street clanking her armor and occasionally switching the steel-covered sides with her garden-hose tail. The other town cows gave her a wide berth after having once felt her reinforced horns. And the most important part of the whole affair is that the armor was brought to actual test several times and was not found wanting. She had had it on but two days when Big Snort and some twenty hostiles bore down upon her and began firing. It is estimated that they wasted 150 rounds of cartridges on her. She scarcely moved during the bombardment, but stood and contentedly chewed her cud and occasionally switched her, as it were, insulated tail. The Indians finally retired disgusted. Several other attempts were made on her, all equally unsuccessful. She was the only cow in the neighborhood that was not killed. Since peace has been declared Mr. Ferguson has removed the armor, and laid it away for the next outbreak.
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