"Comanche War Party on the March, Fully Equipped," oil painting by George Catlin, 1846-1848. By the time Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, the frontier war between the settlers and the Comanche Indians was at full throttle, with brutal attacks being waged on both sides.
Here is an article that appeared in an 1840 Texas newspaper:
A little remedy against Indian arrows:
Take about 16 or 24 sheets of common blotting paper; lay between them some thin layers of cotton or silk; make a kind of jacket of it to be put on in the moment of danger, and you will be invulnerable from the chin to the leg, from the most of Indian arrows and even bullets. It is no more cowardice than to stand behind a tree or to be a cuirassier [a mounted soldier wearing armor]; and in our big European wars, the lives of many thousands of brave soldiers were thus preserved. I recommend it by experience.
H. Mollhausen, captain of artillery
Texas Sentinel, March 1840
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Lisa's History Room 
It’s a little like ducking under your desk to protect yourself from a nuclear bomb. 🙂
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Which is what we did in the early sixties air raid drills.
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It sounds like an interesting form of armor.
Kevlar, used today for protection against bullets, is (I believe) a fabric.
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Seems flimsy, doesn’t it, but silk was the standard bullet & arrow proof fabric in pioneer days.
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