Why did the American Indians bend the trunks of trees for many centuries?

According to the history of several culturally related tribes of the North American Apache Indians, their tribes for many hundreds of years created unique and bent trees throughout North America that look unlike any other trees.

Even in modern times, such bent zigzag trees can most often be stumbled upon in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma.

But why did the Indians bend tree trunks? The North American Indians were primitive but logically thinking people.

While developed European explorers, travelers, soldiers and settlers actively used compasses, geodetic instruments, geographic positioning systems, maps and celestial navigation, many of these things (perhaps except celestial navigation) were inaccessible to North American Indians.

However, the very way this problem has been solved reminds us once again that intelligent people using logical reasoning and ingenuity are found both in primitive societies and in more developed ones.

Native Americans used trees as navigation.

The vast network of "American Indian Forest Trails" was built long before the arrival of Columbus and is well documented throughout America. Even today in many forests you can find a huge number of bent trees, which were used by indigenous hunters and gatherers so as not to get lost in the flattering arrays.

Here is how the Indians created "tree pointers". A live seedling was chosen with a diameter of a thumb and a height of about 2-3 meters. This tree was bent and guided in the right direction, and then fixed in this position with strips of animal skins, bark or vine, depending on the materials to which the American Indian had access.

The American Indians understood that if you bend a young tree and hold it in that position, then its top will grow upwards towards the light, that is, continue to grow upwards at the place of the bend. And the tree could have not one, but several bends.

Each bend had a certain meaning, so that any traveler could identify and distinguish certain trees from all other trees in the forest (some bend in a tree indicated the nearest river or lake, some bend indicated a detour, or vice versa, a possible danger).

After all these steps, the tree needed periodic maintenance for several years to complete its growth. And the Indians placed them in all the territories they lived. From early childhood, this helped them understand how to find their way to home, hunting grounds, avoid dangers and overcome obstacles in any situation.

Also, the American Indians often bent trees specifically in order to lay improvised bridges over rivers or cliffs and thereby shorten the path.

The resulting shape of the tree was unlike anything created by nature. The horizontal section was high enough above the ground that it could not be confused with one of the many fallen trees on the forest floor, and this made such a tree visible at great distances, even in the snow.