In colonial French territory, a different tomahawk design, closer to the ancient European francisca, was in use by French settlers and local peoples. They were symbols of the choice Europeans and Native Americans faced whenever they met: one end was the pipe of peace, the other an axe of war. Pipe tomahawks are artifacts unique to North America, created by Europeans as trade objects but often exchanged as diplomatic gifts. From the 1900's onward, these sometimes had a pipe-bowl carved into the poll, and a hole drilled down the center of the shaft for smoking tobacco through the metal head. The poll can feature a hammer, spike, or may simply be rounded off, and they usually do not have lugs. The heads weigh anywhere from 9 to 20 oz (260 to 570 g), with a cutting edge usually not much longer than four inches (10 cm) from toe to heel. History Ī pipe tomahawk dating to the early 19th centuryĪccording to Mike Haskew, the modern tomahawk shaft is usually less than 2 ft (61 cm) in length, traditionally made of hickory, ash, or maple. Algonquian cognates include Lenape təmahikan, Malecite-Passamaquoddy tomhikon, and Abenaki demahigan, all of which mean 'axe'. The name comes from Powhatan tamahaac, derived from the Proto-Algonquian root * temah- 'to cut off by tool'. The metal tomahawk heads were originally based on a Royal Navy boarding axe (a lightweight hand axe designed to cut through boarding nets when boarding hostile ships) and used as a trade-item with Native Americans for food and other provisions. Tomahawks were general-purpose tools used by Native Americans and later the European colonials with whom they traded, and often employed as a hand-to-hand weapon. ![]() The term came into the English language in the 17th century as an adaptation of the Powhatan ( Virginian Algonquian) word. In pre-colonial times the head was made of stone, bone, or antler, and European settlers later introduced heads of iron and steel. ![]() It traditionally resembles a hatchet with a straight shaft. A tomahawk is a type of single-handed axe used by the many Indigenous peoples and nations of North America.
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