American Indian drum signals

[carnivorousplant]

I was watching an episode of Wagon Trail, which takes great liberties with Western history; horses instead of oxen pulling wagons, crossing deserts instead of following rivers, and probably other things that I am not aware.
Indians are sending specific messages about the wagon train by drums, as detailed as if they were using Morse code. Naming a person who is with the wagon train who saved an Indian village from the US Army, and is to be protected by various tribes. Surely this is inaccurate.

[Darren_Garrison]

Apparently something like that happened in parts of Africa, but no mention of NAs.

[TriPolar]

Drums were primarily ceremonial, although the ceremonies might be preparation for an attack. I’m no expert but I think the use of drum languages by Native Americans would be more noted.

Also, it’s Wagon Trail (Train?), those shows would rehash the same fictional concepts used in decades of western movies.

[Flyer]

@carnivorousplant

I was watching an episode of Wagon Trail, which takes great liberties with Western history; horses instead of oxen pulling wagons, crossing deserts instead of following rivers, and probably other things that I am not aware.

That would be news to the pioneers. Some of them did indeed use horses, for better speed. Oxen have more pulling power, but horses generally make better time.

Teams of 10 to 12 horses or mules or six yoked oxen typically were used to pull one of these wagons, with mules and oxen generally preferred.

Prairie schooner | Wagon History & Design

Oxen were the most common draft animal for pulling covered wagons, although mules and horses were also used.

Covered wagon

Only in the later years of the trail, from 1850 onward, did horse teams begin to be fairly common. By this time the road was better established, and swifter-moving transport had its advantages: grain was sometimes carried along so that the animals could have proper feed, at least during the first few weeks. To give them their due, the horses seem to have stood up well enough then, when the journey was not so arduous.

The Prairie Schooner Got Them There

[carnivorousplant]

Thanks, Flyer.

[bob_2]

The OP asks about drums, but another movie trope is smoke signals. It seems highly unlikely to me that a smoke message would be any more informative than the signal fires used all over the world to warn of invaders, but with no information about who, or how many.

[DesertDog]

@Flyer

That would be news to the pioneers. Some of them did indeed use horses, for better speed. Oxen have more pulling power, but horses generally make better time.

I think it was Centennial where I read of just that debate for the trek west. The guide the protagonists had hired was adamant oxen be used and they watched enviously as horse-drawn wagons passed them and went out of sight. Then about six weeks later, they came upon people stranded with dead horses begging for help. “They made their choice; fuck 'em,” was the guide’s attitude.