Interesting thread... I have definitely seen some of these old photos, very cool to speculate about the journeys some of these swords/status symbols must have been taken on.
Side-note: Sword-play in a sense was not unknown in North America, the so-called atassa warclub of the Southeast was heavily used and was described as a wooden falchion. The Aztecs and their neighbors are famous for using what was essentially an obsidian edged wooden sword - they called it the macuahuitl. Similarly the Calusa people of Florida were known to use shark-tooth swords. Carib/Kali'na peoples of northern South America often replaced their bows and clubs with muskets and cutlasses. The Tupian peoples on the coast of today's Brazil traded for swords with European allies.. what might today be called side-swords and longswords. In South America's Guianas and Amazon there are a variety of bladed/paddle clubs which, as much as possible for a club, have sword-like qualities because of the edge. But it is interesting to note that in North America, while there was the indigenous atassa, it seems swords weren't as heavily traded for and used in warfare as other items.
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