Tacked Indian Trade Rifle – Black powder percussion cap - an 1800's native artifact

Tacked Indian Trade Rifle – Black powder percussion cap 

1850’s-60’s percussion cap black powder .45 cal muzzle loader. Typical Indian trade rifle with original Native American decoration and modifications. The lock is a back action lock that is marked (H.E. Leman) Henry Leman – Lancaster (Pennsylvania). Leman was a famous American rifle makers of the time and his rifles were most popular with the Western native Americans, such as the Apache, Navajo, Comanche, Cheyenne, Kaw and Arapahoe. The barrel is marked Cast Steel and Leacock & Holly. It shows age and has a history of repairs and alterations from its time on the western frontier. The lock and action functions, bore is clear. Tack decorated, which is very consistent to period Native American practices. Tacks are antiques with no indications of being added to reproduce look, so everything appears quite authentic.

Leman rifles were the most used rifle during the American buffaloes hunts on the western plains. For a long period he made a specialty of short-barreled, large-calibred pieces designed for these great animals. He occasionally received buffalo meat and skins in trade for them. These Lancaster guns were immensely popular during the last period of the bison's great abundance in the plains of the West. In his "Report on the American Bison," William T. Hornaday designates 1730 to 1830 as the period of desultory destruction, 1830 to 1888 as the period of systematic slaughter. He says that as late as 1872 there were thousands of buffaloes within ten miles of Wichita, Southeastern Kansas. Leman's busiest years, 1835 to 1880, nearly cover this second period. His rifles were used by innumerable plainsmen and cowboys, when the market on buffalo robes was at its height and were singularly the favorite weapons of the Western Indians. Frank R. Diffenderffer, always a close observer and accurate historian, notes this: "Between 1857 and 1870 I was engaged in trades over the West and Southwest, making trips across the plains from Missouri to Mexico, and also from the Gulf of Mexico into Arizona. During that time it was my fortune to meet many tribes of Indians, — Apaches, Navajos, Comanches, Cheyennes, Kaws and Arapahoes, and most of them carried guns as well as bows and arrows. When occasion offered, I took pains to look at the names of the makers stamped on the weapons. By far the largest number were Leman rifles.  It was possible to barter with the Indians for any possessions except their rifle."