He lifted his arm to hurl his spear at the charging animal. Once again, luck was against him. The end of the spear caught in a twisted grapevine that hung from a young ash tree. This slender sapling was a little taller than Ohweluhndoe and about as thick as his wrist.

Ohgweluhndoe tried to pull the spear free. But the lower end of the vine was tangled in a root at the foot of the sapling. All he did was to bend the sapling backward in a curve. Letting go of the spear, he turned and ran for his life.

Before he had gone very far, he realized that there was no sound behind him. He did not hear the bear‘s heavy feet crunching on the dry leaves. Looking back, he saw the bear lying on the ground with the spear through its neck! What had happened?

Ohgweluhndoe went back and looked down at the dead bear. Somehow the spear had come loose from the vine — with such force that it had killed the bear.

The warrior pulled the spear from the bear neck. Once again he put the end of the spear against the vine. Slowly, he pulled the spear back. The vine stretched, bending the sapling. Ohgweluhndoe let go of the spear. The sapling sprang upright. As the vine straightened with a snap, it hurled the spear through the air. Ohweluhndoe had invented the bow and arrow.

The Mohawk soon learned how to make smaller bows out of small saplings. For the bowstring, they used animal hide instead of grapevine. And they learned to make small spears, or arrows, with feathers at the end to help them fly straight. The bow and arrow became their most important weapon.