John Haltom

John Haltom

Oxford, MS

Mixed Media

Native American Arts

Guild member since 2002

John has been handcrafting Native American bows and arrows since he was 12 years old. He started out using branches, but because they didn't last long, he now cuts staves from the trunks of trees, including the strong Osage orange, elm, hickory, ash, black locust, and black cherry. He uses very limited hand tools and no machines or electric saws, John's bows can be five-foot long Cherokee bows from the Woodlands, or shorter bows from the Plains. After he finishes the extracting process of cutting and stringing each bow, he decorates them with feathers, beads, paint, and leather or fur. His arrows are handmade, the shafts cut from dogwood, privet, willow, black cherry, or cane. The shafts are bundles in groups of a dozen, put up to dry for up to a year before they are finished and furnished with arrowheads.