Tomahawks

 Native American Indian Tomahawks

Nearly every Indian Warrior carried a club of some kind.  Such weapons were fashioned in various ways from various materials.  Some warriors would uproot a young hardwood sapling, carve the heavy root ball into the business end while the small tree trunk served as the handle. 

 The roots might be sharpened to form spikes or the ball end might be embedded with stone points.  As an alternative a warrior might attach a heavy round stone or chisel type blade to a wooden shaft in order to pound or slash his enemy.  The woodland Indians called this type of war instrument a "Tomahawk".  A word derived from the Algonquian language spoken across much of the East.

It was only after European traders introduced metal hatchets that the word  "Tomahawk" became linked with an axe like weapon.  This particular "Tomahawk" consists of a river rock bound onto a hardwood handle with rawhide.  It is then wrapped with deerskin and adorned with a medicine bundle for supernatural abilities in battle, simulated Eagle feathers which must be earned by feats of bravery, a small bone from a Fox to enhance the cunning of its owner and a tuft of horse hair from his favorite pony.