Projectile Point (FOUS 16788) - Public Domain image, National Parks Gallery

In the hands of a skilled hunter, iron-tipped arrowheads like this one could easily kill a buffalo or man. George Catlin, the artist who visited Fort Union in 1832, noted the strength and advantage of an arrow: “When the arrow is thrown with great ease and certainty to the heart; and instances sometimes occur, where the arrow passes entirely through the animal’s body. An Indian, therefore, mounted on a fleet and well-trained horse, with his bow in his hand, and his quiver slung on his back, containing an hundred arrows, of which he can throw fifteen or twenty in a minute, is a formidable and dangerous enemy.” It is probable that the arrow he describes could have been one similar to the metal point pictured here.