Thayendanega/Joseph Brant, Mohawk war leader, 1776. Small axes, without smoking pipes attached, were carried and used by Native people and settler colonial peoples alike, including soldiers and civilians. Small axes (also called hatchets, belt axes, or hand axes) became a staple and highly desirable trading item during the fur trade era in the Americas. Before colonial contact, Native people had routinely used various flint and stone cutting tools, but during the early 1600s, they embraced the iron axe as a sharp substitute. Many of the hatchets used by Native people during the 1700s, however, were not of Native manufacture they were designed and made by Euro-American blacksmiths in Europe or in the colonies in America or France. The word “tomahawk” derives from the Algonquian Indian language-e.g., tamahaac in Powhatan, temahigan in Abenaki-meaning “the striking instrument.” It can refer to any kind of tool or weapon-wooden club, stone hatchet, iron hatchet-wielded by hand in wood-working or in conflict. Tomahawks are one of the objects most associated with Natives, especially within the stereotype of the savage warrior, and in popular culture they are often presented as a solely Native weapon. This is a post-European contact pipe, given the pewter inlays around the pipestone bowl. Both collected by Judge George Turner in 1795. Kaskaskian calumet pipe stem 97-83-1436 and pipe bowl 97-83-1432a in the Penn Museum. ![]() Since this object combines two different sources of material-wood from Native territories and metal acquired through trade with Europeans-I wondered if there was a predecessor to the pipe tomahawk that might cast light on this object’s origins? Tobacco played an important role in many Native religious ceremonies, and so the connection of a smoking pipe with a weapon could illustrate a relationship between warfare and spirituality. The object measures 80.6 cm in length with a relatively narrow, sharp blade according to the Penn Museum records, it came from the Great Plains and is representative of Dakota (Sioux) tribal culture.Īs I analyzed this pipe tomahawk, I began to think about the significance of tobacco, an Indigenous crop that was introduced to Europeans, and its importance in Native cultures. There is a perforation in the end of the handle, made to hold a wrist strap (now missing). It features three parts: a wooden handle and an iron blade, welded to an iron pipe. This pipe tomahawk, object number 45-15-1357, was purchased from Mrs. How does a tomahawk, as an object typically associated with violence, come to be connected to a smoking pipe used in rituals and ceremonies associated with peace? Who devised the idea of welding these different objects together to bring pipe tomahawks into being, and what are the cultural significances surrounding their presence? File these queries under “Things Your Average History Course Doesn’t Tell You.” NovemPipe Tomahawk 45-15-1357 at the Penn Museum.
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