Tag Archives: atlatl

News

World Atlatl Association Ties Atlatlists Together

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We still treasure the handwritten notes we received many years ago from World Atlatl Association secretary Leni Clubb. When we first started going to atlatl events in the early 90s, we were thrilled to find our there was a World Atlatl Association.
World Atlat Association logo

We became members and have been members ever since. Leni attended atlatl events and kept everyone informed about atlatl events and rules for over two decades. Many of us fondly remember her handwritten notes and support as we set up atlatl events in those early years. Leni has been retired from her secretary job now for a few years but her dedication and loyalty to the World Atlatl Association made it the terrific organization it is today.

Membership in the World Atlatl Association is well worth the minimal annual dues. The WAA has an informative webpage and members receive quarterly newsletters. Check out Thunderbird Atlatl’s Bob Berg hunting with one of our Wyalusing atlatls on this page of the World Atlatl Association web page.

Interested in joining? Go to the webpage or print the application form below:
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News, Our Products

Look Forward To Spring! Think Atlatl Fishing!

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Okay so it’s snowy and cold in a lot of places but we can dream of what awaits us (or if you live in a warmer climate, get ready for an adventure)! We’re already getting seed catalogs in the mail so think spring!

Fishing with atlatls and harpoons is exciting and fun. It’s one of the most satisfying uses of an atlatl even if you don’t get anything. We and our customers have experienced atlatl harpoon fishing in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, on lakes in Kentucky and New York, Michigan, Florida and Michigan. Thunderbird Atlatl’s harpoons have proven themselves over and over again.

Bob Berg with a blue fish caught with a Wyalusing atlatl and a Thunderbird Atlatl harpoon. Bob was fishing in Long Island sound off the Connecticut coast with Gary Nolf and Scott Van Arsdale.
Bob Berg with a blue fish caught with a Wyalusing atlatl and a Thunderbird Atlatl harpoon. Bob was fishing in Long Island Sound off the Connecticut coast with Gary Nolf and Scott Van Arsdale.

Last July just off of Drummond Island in Lake Huron, Michigan, a group of us spent an enjoyable day and night making our equipment and preparing for atlatl fishing. We fastened two canoes together to make a pontoon so people could stand up in the boat safely so they could see into the water to shoot fish. This was all part of the Great Lakes Traditional Arts Gathering which will take place again in July 2014.

Fishing with harpoons in Lake Huron, Michigan, just off of Drummond Island. No fish were harmed in the production of this photo.
Fishing with harpoons in Lake Huron, Michigan, just off of Drummond Island. No fish were harmed in the production of this photo.

One of our canoes used battery powered lights. The other more traditional setup used birch bark torches. The piece of birch about the torch is a blind to keep the harpooner from being blinded by the light.

Night Fishing at Drummond Island with birch bark torches at the Great Lakes Traditional Arts Gathering.
Night Fishing at Drummond Island with birch bark torches at the Great Lakes Traditional Arts Gathering.

Our Products, Video

Where do Thunderbird Atlatls get their names from?

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Back in the early ’90s when I first started designing atlatls, I was working a carpentry job in Wyalusing, PA. At the time, I was experimenting with atlatls with rests, and ended up creating one of the first original Atlatl designs in a thousand years, and the first official Thunderbird atlatl. I decided to name it the “Wyalusing” after the town I was working in — it was a word of Indian origin, and it had a nice ring to it.

“Wyalusing” comes from Native American words: “Wigalusing” meaning, “the good hunting ground” and “M’chwihilusing” meaning “the place of the hoary veteran.” M’chwihilusing which was the original name of Wyalusing, prior to European settlement.

Over the next year, I designed several other Atlatls and decided to keep with the theme of naming them after local Indian names — towns, rivers, lakes and such. Soon, the Wappasening, the Tioga, the Hiawatha, the Catatonk, and several other designs were born.

We’ve kept up with this trend for the past twenty years, and several other atlatl manufacturers that came after Thunderbird Atlatl seem to have liked this idea as well, and followed suit.

Here’s a map with all of these places plotted out on a map. The red dot in the middle is our shop, and you can see that all of the Indian-named places nearby were our inspiration. Most of them come from Iroquois names – the 6 tribes that made up the Iroquois Confederation were centered around modern day New York State.

-Bob Berg


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