Where can I find a war tomahawk?

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Last Updated: 4 years

QUESTION:
Hi Folks ! Where can i Find a war tomahawk? I guess the Indians didn’t fight with a Tomahawk, which is at the same time a peacepipe. The hole throughout the shaft for smoke would make the Tomahawk weak. The back of the blade (Tomahawk) must have been a sharp peak or dull, to crush human head.

Have you a good picture for a Tattoo? I need one as well aa an origanal picture of a Peace pipe. I know the end of a pipe was make of a special stone. What is the name of it? I would be very happy if you can find anybody to send a few pictures of these two things.
~Submitted by Micky From Stockholm, Sweden

Hi Micky,
French pipe hawk traded to Chippewa IndiansActually the combined pipe-tomahawk, or Pipe Hawk as they were referred to in the trade jargon of the Old West, was a popular item in trading with indian tribes of the Plains in the late 1700s to mid 1800s. Often the pipe stem was made of metal as well as the tomahawk/pipe bowl end. The metal shaft was then circled by a wood sleeve so it wouldn’t burn your hand holding on to the metal when the pipe was lit, and giving you a good grip if you needed to use the business end of the weapon, and doubling its strength.

If the shaft was solid wood, it was usually made from a hardwood like hickory or ironwood, so it was still strong even though it was hollowed out for the pipe stem. Ironwood is difficult to cut even today with modern tools becuase of it’s density. So technically, the pipehawk would have been strong enough to use as a weapon. However, you are correct, they usually weren’t used in battle, for other reasons.

Many of the early pipehawks were made in England from melted down silver and ornately decorated. Ornate silver inlaid presentation models of the pipe-tomahawk combination, were brought to Indian leaders as gifts, and were manufactured for the Indian trade in very limited supplies. Because old trade records count pipe hawks shipped to the Americas in the hundreds, compared to straight axes in the multiple thousands, it is likely the pipe hawk was used mainly for ceremony or carried as a status symbol by those few who could afford them and chiefs who had received them as gifts, rather than commonly used as a disposable weapon or tool.

Later on, the first blacksmith to relocate to Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1798, was a man named Joseph Jourdain. He manufactured pipe hawks from broken gun barrels and rock hard ironwood sapplings, then decorated them with ornate engravings and copper and brass inlays and he could make a blade edge “to rival any razor.”

His pipe hawks became the most sought out of the several kinds of pipe hawks available at the time and his works were traded throughout central Wisconsin and eventually found their way from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean and up into Canada. Joseph Jordain married a daughter of Michael Gravel, whose wife was the daughter of a Menominee chief.

pukamoggran - a kind of tomahawk used by the Comanche and ShoshoneAny weapon made of metals was soon considered superior to weapons made of bone or stone or wood, and it was also a time saver, because making a balanced tomahawk and shaping a stone or bone head took considerable physical effort and time. Prior to the introduction of the metal pipe hawk, tomahawk heads were usually made from buffalo or elk jaw bones, or river rocks. As you mentioned, stone heads could either have a sharp edge for cutting, or a rounded edge for crushing. These materials often broke or chipped when used as tools or weapons, throwing off the balance of the whole piece, or requiring a lot of effort to reshape and sharpen.

The French tomahawk head was shaped like a fleur-de-lis, the English blade resembled a straight ax, and the Spanish tomahawk was shaped like a broad ax.

Cheyenne and Sioux war clubThe heart cutouts so often seen in tomahawks originated in England during the Renaissance Period, when flowers and hearts were popular designs with the nobility. Later, bears and other symbols more meaningful to the Indian people were incorporated to make them more attractive for trade.

Once metals became more available, each indian nation also produced tomahawks and tomahawk heads with their own patterns and markings.

To traditional tribal people, the fact that the blade was made of metal and would hold up to hard, extended use was probably more important than the fact it was also a pipe. That was a novelty probably appreciated more by the white men who brought them than the Indian. The Indians, however, would have smoked from a pipe hawk when offered one, because it would be considered a grave insult to refuse an offered pipe.

To traditional people, a ceremonial pipe is sacred, and the head of a pipe is never stored with the stem attached, for fear that the hands that have handled the pipe stem may have belonged to someone evil, and their evil spirits could somehow contaminate the sacred stone of the bowl. For this purpose, all traditional pipes could be taken apart so the stem and the bowl could be stored in separate compartments. It would also have been a practical matter for a pipe stem to be detachable for the purpose of easier cleaning.

The most sacred stone used for pipe bowls by the Plains Indians is a red stone called catlinite. Catlinite actually comes in many colors, but the red color associated with sacred pipes is quarried only one place in the world, near Pipestone, Minnesota. Thus the common term used today is Pipestone. Alabaster and Soapstone are other softer stones that are often used for carving pipe bowls, because they easier to carve, plentiful, and inexpensive.

Indians have used the Pipestone quarry for more than a thousand years, and the quarry didn’t belong to any one tribe until after reservations were established. Before that, a buffer zone around the quarry was understood to be neutral ground, where even tribes who were sworn enemies would not dare molest each other while on this sacred ground. A war was fought to prevent the quarry from being separated from Indian lands. Today it is associated with one of the Sioux tribes, but people from other tribes still make pilgrimages to the quarry to obtain the sacred catlinite. White people cannot harvest the pipestone from this quarry.

However, just outside the quarry’s entrance, there is a gift shop run by tribal members that will sell you pipestone blocks for carving and pipestone pipe bowls. It is considered controversial to buy and sell pipestone. Traditionalist elders say it is sacriligous, and one should never buy their own pipestone pipe. They say it should always be gifted to you, and if you are worthy, one will come your way just when it is needed.

The same concept and practice of neutral ground occurred in California at the obsidian quarry sites. All 103 tribes that lived on the land we now call California used obsidian in the making of weapons and knives, and at least 22 obsidian quarry sites have been documented. Obsidian was one of the earliest items traded in prehistoric California.

Another big obsidian quarry used by multiple indian tribes is located in Yellowstone National Park. The same truce zone was observed around the obsidian quarry site there.

Obsidian could be shaped into a blade sharper than modern day surgical scapels that are made of stainless steel. It is best known for it’s use in knives and arrowheads, but it was also used in tomahawks. Local natives believed obsidian possessed a poisonous power, making it even more deadly as a weapon.

Obsidian weapons broke easily, but this wasn’t neccesarily a bad thing, because the embedded piece that broke off inside the wound insured the wounded person would most likely bleed to death from his injuries if he wasn’t killed outright.

Obsidian weapons and bags of obsidian projectile points are
typical items that have been found at ancient burials and were commonly
left as offerings in the belief that they could be used for hunting in the spirit world.

buffalo horn war clubHollywood movies popularized the image of the more familiar tomahawk and pipe hawk styles, but they weren’t the only weapons used in hand to hand combat. In fact, although generations of children were raised with the impression that the old trade axes were weapons, archaeological evidence suggests that they were used, primarily by women, for breaking up limbs and brush for firewood.

While the heavy French felling axe was quite acceptable to the typically sedentary Iroquoian peoples, it was much too cumbersome for the hunters and gatherers of the northern forests. Hence the French introduced the lighter, more slender Biscay axe. This axe was probably introduced into the trade towards the end of the 17th century, at about the same time the Hudson’s Bay Company was establishing trading posts on James Bay.

The English also found their axes too cumbersome for the Algonquian-speaking peoples with whom they traded and therefore introduced a lighter, hatchetlike tool.

A sharpened buffalo jaw bone with no handle was also used, with leather wrapped on the long side to give the warrior a good grip, and perhaps a loop to hang it from his belt or in his lodge when not in use.

Another popular weapon had a roundish stone sewn inside a piece of rawhide, attached to a wooden handle by a braided strip 5 or 6 inches long. It was swung with a circular motion of the wrist to create momentum and force before striking the enemy.

A variation of this weapon was made with a round hardwood ball attached in a stationary position to a curved wooden handle that was often decorated with brass nails or tacks applied in intricate patterns, commonly referred to as a Tommy Knocker.

Yet another weapon was made by inserting a row of 3 or 4 large obsidian points, sharpened wood sticks, or metal blades into a wood handle, usually made from a gun stock when they couldn’t obtain any more bullets for the gun, or the barrel was damaged. And of course, just about everyone carried a knife.

Pukamoggran - A type of tomahawk used by the Comanche and Shoshone

Pukamoggran – A type of tomahawk used by the Comanche and Shoshone

Many of the early pipehawks were made in England from melted down silver and ornately decorated. Ornate silver inlaid presentation models of the pipe-tomahawk combination, were brought to Indian leaders as gifts, and were manufactured for the Indian trade in very limited supplies. Because old trade records count pipe hawks shipped to the Americas in the hundreds, compared to straight axes in the multiple thousands, it is likely the pipe hawk was used mainly for ceremony or carried as a status symbol by those few who could afford them and chiefs who had received them as gifts, rather than commonly used as a disposable weapon or tool.

Later on, the first blacksmith to relocate to Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1798, was a man named Joseph Jourdain. He manufactured pipe hawks from broken gun barrels and rock hard ironwood sapplings, then decorated them with ornate engravings and copper and brass inlays and he could make a blade edge “to rival any razor.”

His pipe hawks became the most sought out of the several kinds of pipe hawks available at the time and his works were traded throughout central Wisconsin and eventually found their way from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean and up into Canada. Joseph Jordain married a daughter of Michael Gravel, whose wife was the daughter of a Menominee chief.

Any weapon made of metals was soon considered superior to weapons made of bone or stone or wood, and it was also a time saver, because making a balanced tomahawk and shaping a stone or bone head took considerable physical effort and time. Prior to the introduction of the metal pipe hawk, tomahawk heads were usually made from buffalo or elk jaw bones, or river rocks. As you mentioned, stone heads could either have a sharp edge for cutting, or a rounded edge for crushing. These materials often broke or chipped when used as tools or weapons, throwing off the balance of the whole piece, or requiring a lot of effort to reshape and sharpen.

The French tomahawk head was shaped like a fleur-de-lis, the English blade resembled a straight ax, and the Spanish tomahawk was shaped like a broad ax.

Cheyenne and Sioux war clubThe heart cutouts so often seen in tomahawks originated in England during the Renaissance Period, when flowers and hearts were popular designs with the nobility. Later, bears and other symbols more meaningful to the Indian people were incorporated to make them more attractive for trade.

Once metals became more available, each indian nation also produced tomahawks and tomahawk heads with their own patterns and markings.

To traditional tribal people, the fact that the blade was made of metal and would hold up to hard, extended use was probably more important than the fact it was also a pipe. That was a novelty probably appreciated more by the white men who brought them than the Indian. The Indians, however, would have smoked from a pipe hawk when offered one, because it would be considered a grave insult to refuse an offered pipe.

To traditional people, a ceremonial pipe is sacred, and the head of a pipe is never stored with the stem attached, for fear that the hands that have handled the pipe stem may have belonged to someone evil, and their evil spirits could somehow contaminate the sacred stone of the bowl. For this purpose, all traditional pipes could be taken apart so the stem and the bowl could be stored in separate compartments. It would also have been a practical matter for a pipe stem to be detachable for the purpose of easier cleaning.

The most sacred stone used for pipe bowls by the Plains Indians is a red stone called catlinite. Catlinite actually comes in many colors, but the red color associated with sacred pipes is quarried only one place in the world, near Pipestone, Minnesota. Thus the common term used today is Pipestone. Alabaster and Soapstone are other softer stones that are often used for carving pipe bowls, because they easier to carve, plentiful, and inexpensive.

Indians have used the Pipestone quarry for more than a thousand years, and the quarry didn’t belong to any one tribe until after reservations were established. Before that, a buffer zone around the quarry was understood to be neutral ground, where even tribes who were sworn enemies would not dare molest each other while on this sacred ground. A war was fought to prevent the quarry from being separated from Indian lands. Today it is associated with one of the Sioux tribes, but people from other tribes still make pilgrimages to the quarry to obtain the sacred catlinite. White people cannot harvest the pipestone from this quarry.

However, just outside the quarry’s entrance, there is a gift shop run by tribal members that will sell you pipestone blocks for carving and pipestone pipe bowls. It is considered controversial to buy and sell pipestone. Traditionalist elders say it is sacriligous, and one should never buy their own pipestone pipe. They say it should always be gifted to you, and if you are worthy, one will come your way just when it is needed.

The same concept and practice of neutral ground occurred in California at the obsidian quarry sites. All 103 tribes that lived on the land we now call California used obsidian in the making of weapons and knives, and at least 22 obsidian quarry sites have been documented. Obsidian was one of the earliest items traded in prehistoric California.

Another big obsidian quarry used by multiple indian tribes is located in Yellowstone National Park. The same truce zone was observed around the obsidian quarry site there.

Obsidian could be shaped into a blade sharper than modern day surgical scapels that are made of stainless steel. It is best known for it’s use in knives and arrowheads, but it was also used in tomahawks. Local natives believed obsidian possessed a poisonous power, making it even more deadly as a weapon.

Obsidian weapons broke easily, but this wasn’t neccesarily a bad thing, because the embedded piece that broke off inside the wound insured the wounded person would most likely bleed to death from his injuries if he wasn’t killed outright.

Obsidian weapons and bags of obsidian projectile points are
typical items that have been found at ancient burials and were commonly
left as offerings in the belief that they could be used for hunting in the spirit world.

buffalo horn war clubHollywood movies popularized the image of the more familiar tomahawk and pipe hawk styles, but they weren’t the only weapons used in hand to hand combat. In fact, although generations of children were raised with the impression that the old trade axes were weapons, archaeological evidence suggests that they were used, primarily by women, for breaking up limbs and brush for firewood.

While the heavy French felling axe was quite acceptable to the typically sedentary Iroquoian peoples, it was much too cumbersome for the hunters and gatherers of the northern forests. Hence the French introduced the lighter, more slender Biscay axe. This axe was probably introduced into the trade towards the end of the 17th century, at about the same time the Hudson’s Bay Company was establishing trading posts on James Bay.

The English also found their axes too cumbersome for the Algonquian-speaking peoples with whom they traded and therefore introduced a lighter, hatchetlike tool.

A sharpened buffalo jaw bone with no handle was also used, with leather wrapped on the long side to give the warrior a good grip, and perhaps a loop to hang it from his belt or in his lodge when not in use.

Another popular weapon had a roundish stone sewn inside a piece of rawhide, attached to a wooden handle by a braided strip 5 or 6 inches long. It was swung with a circular motion of the wrist to create momentum and force before striking the enemy.

A variation of this weapon was made with a round hardwood ball attached in a stationary position to a curved wooden handle that was often decorated with brass nails or tacks applied in intricate patterns, commonly referred to as a Tommy Knocker.

Yet another weapon was made by inserting a row of 3 or 4 large obsidian points, sharpened wood sticks, or metal blades into a wood handle, usually made from a gun stock when they couldn’t obtain any more bullets for the gun, or the barrel was damaged. And of course, just about everyone carried a knife.

RELATED LINKS ON THIS SITE:

Pictures of tomahawks and war clubs, arrowheads, spear points, native american trade axes and pipe hawks

Native American Tattoo Design Pictures

OUTSIDE LINKS:

Pipestone Pipes – This site sells mostly pipestone pipes and there are good examples of many pipe styles. The red pipes are pipestone, but they have a few alabaster and soapstone pipes, as well.