What would the Lakota do with an AK-47?

Yes, they should certainly find a convenient Israel gunsmith in the Dakota Territory in the 1860s and ask him for advice.:p


How are they even going to manufacture the gun, let alone the ammunition? As I recall none of the Native American nations even developed smelting or produced their own iron or steel.


As a side note, at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls at least one matchlock(!) rifle was found among the weapons of the dead, which could only have come from Spanish conquistadors and which was still in working order, so a case can at least be made that if such an ancient weapon was still working @235 years after they went out of production the far more robust AK-47 could be depended on.

So are the Lakota getting one gun, thousands, thousands plus plenty of ammo and user instruction manuals and spare parts and...
 
As a side note, at the Second Battle of Adobe Walls at least one matchlock(!) rifle was found among the weapons of the dead, which could only have come from Spanish conquistadors and which was still in working order
Soviet Army liberated several dozens matchlocks from Afghan tribesmen at early stage of Afghan war. But matchlocks were produced in this region until at least late 19th century.

And I wasn't talking about Lakota specifically. "What would horse riding warriors do to adapt Kalash to their needs?" was the question which makes sense, not "what would Lakota do".
 
So now the subject presumes an endless supply of AK-47s for any of the horse tribes on the Great Plains, plus endless ammo and parts? Barring some truly ASB scenarios this prolongs the survival of the tribes until the US begins copying captured guns.

Then the world enters the 20th Century with the US, British and other armies much better equipped in terms of small arms.

Not a good thing.
 
So now the subject presumes an endless supply of AK-47s for any of the horse tribes on the Great Plains, plus endless ammo and parts? Barring some truly ASB scenarios this prolongs the survival of the tribes until the US begins copying captured guns.

Then the world enters the 20th Century with the US, British and other armies much better equipped in terms of small arms.

Not a good thing.

You do know traders frequently sold weapons and ammo to the Indians, right? That's how the Indians got guns. Likewise, because of a lack of materials on the plains, they'd cannibalize parts and take from other sources (on the Winchester, for example, they'd removed the piece keeping the muzzle together and tie it up with telegraph wire. Every part that could be used would be used and any weapon boiled down only to it necessary parts with the bells and whistles taken off to be used for other things.
 
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