The use of brass or iron tacks to decorate gunstocks, whether for religious or strictly decorative purposes, was a practice of the American Indian as far back as at least the early 1800s. One colorful example of Indians using metal tacks to decorate weaponry comes from an 1860s Sioux war chief, Pawnee Killer. Eyewitnesses, who reported the chief stood “six feet four, broad shouldered, and [weighed] 240 pounds...,” stated, “For every Pawnee Indian he kills, a brass-headed tack is driven


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