335-18<BR> The wooden handle on this pipe tomahawk is wider close to the metal head and tapers towards the mouth piece. The handle is not decorated. The area around the mouth piece is crumbled. A stopper is visible on the other end of the shaft to close off the passage through which the smoke passes. The blade flares away from the handle. The part between bowl and blade consists of multiple layers creating a decorative effect. The part right under the bowl has a triangular layer on both sides, or file cut -V- area. The pipe bowl has rings on top and bottom. There is no maker's mark.<BR> <BR> Pipe tomahawks.<BR> The pipe tomahawk is an object that is unique to American Indian culture. Other native peoples in the world also had cutting axes and smoking pipes, but only in North America were the two combined in a single implement (Peterson 1965). "Over a period of 250 years, it served on different occasions as a functional tool, a ceremonial adjunct, a decorative object, and a symbol of prestige" (Peterson 1965: foreword vii). "Few other implements have ever combined so many different functions: tool, weapon, scepter, symbol, and smoking pipe. In this one instrument is collected the lore of handicraft, warfare, prestige, ceremony and personal comfort" (Peterson 1965: 1). Pipe tomahawks were only given or traded to chiefs or other influential Native Americans. These pipes were smoked individually because they were too expensive for general distribution (West 1934). "By the late eighteenth century, this hybrid product of the fur trade held meaning on both sides of the cultural divide as an object of diplomacy used to symbolize alliance and authority, as well as to give tangible form to spoken metaphors for war ("taking up the hatchet") and peace ("smoking the peace pipe"). Its form and function continued to evolve well into the nineteenth century, as its ceremonial meaning gradually supplanted its practical uses as a tool and weapon" (Shannon 2005: 592). <BR> The word tomahawk stems from the Virginia Algonquian words tamahak or tamahakan which refer to a utensil for cutting. Captain John Smith defined the word tomahaks in his brief vocabulary of Indian terms (1607-1609) as "axes" to be applied to the native war club, stone axes and the iron hatchet. Later in time, the term tomahawk was only used for metal hatchets, but could mean any type of metal hatchet used as a weapon. As the years passed, the term began to be restricted to hatchets used only by American Indians, and later a term most often used for pipe tomahawks (Peterson 1965). But terms such as "pipe hatchet" or "pipe ax" are also used to indicate a pipe tomahawk.<BR> "Before the introduction of metal axes or tomahawks, the American Indian war-club was often merely a handle of strong wood, ending in a ball of the same material. These balls of wood were often set with blades of flint" (West 1934: 315). American Indian war-clubs came in many shapes and sizes and were used, as the name indicates, as weapons. The metal hatchet was in high demand from the beginning of trade relations between Europeans and American Indians for a couple of reasons. The new implement was more efficient because it was deadlier in combat, easier to cut wood with and just as useful as a status and ceremonial object. Another reason is that Europeans were not reluctant to trade this item unlike trading guns and the metal hatchet did not need any additional technological items to function such as gunpowder and ball (Peterson 1965).<BR> <BR> Pipe tomahawk heads<BR> <BR> Primarily only the tomahawk heads were manufactured for the American Indian trade, but sometimes complete, elaborate silver inlaid presentation models were given to American Indian leaders as gifts. Tomahawk heads were produced by several European nations, France, Holland, and England and primarily made of steel, but also made of brass and pewter, and hand forged. Tomahawks were introduced at an early age. They were used at the siege of the Oneida fort in 1615 (West 1934: 316). From then on, for over two centuries tomahawks poured into America, especially from the English and the Dutch. Each nation used its own pattern and marking but also interchanged. "The English blade resembled a straight ax, the French was shaped like a fleur-de-lis, and the Spanish was in the shape of a broadax" (Mails 1972: 471). At first only simple hatchet heads were traded, but by 1750 the pipe bowl version was also available. The French tomahawk or 'spontoon' tomahawk, so called by Harold L. Peterson (1965) because of its similarity to the military espontoon, an officer's spear of the 16th and 17th centuries, was created in both the simple tomahawk and the pipe tomahawk version. <BR> Some scholars have dated the pipe tomahawk's origins to between 1675 and 1710 based on visual evidence such as portraits and engravings, but there is no supporting evidence in textual or archaeological sources for this argument. Lists of trade goods gathered from treaty records and traders' accounts from the early eighteenth century do not mention pipe tomahawks until the 1750s (Shannon 2005). <BR> Usually pipe tomahawks were manufactured from a "simple piece of iron bent over to form a socket and the ends would then be forged with a piece of steel to form the cutting edge. The poll of the axe would be pierced and fitted with a pipe bowl" (King 1977: 26). "On the opposite side of the blade was a cup-like cavity with a small hole extending into the eye of the weapon into which a tough handle of wood was fitted, usually18 inches or 2 feet in length. The handle was perforated almost its entire length, and below the hollow of the bowl it was bored at right angles to this perforation, a suitable stem hole for the passage of the tobacco smoke when the implement was in use as a pipe" (McGuire 1898: 464).<BR> After the start of colonization, white American blacksmiths also produced pipe tomahawks. They usually copied after foreign types in part or in whole. It is sometimes impossible to distinguish between an American made pipe and a foreign type because blacksmiths in the States were generally highly skilled. In fact, it has been said that Native Americans did not prefer the foreign tomahawk pipe for its lack of ornamentation. They wanted their blades perforated in one or more places and often with a heart, cross or crescent design (West 1934: 323). White American blacksmiths would do this when requested by Native Americans. "The crescent is supposed to be an emblem of the new moon, which together with the stars, might tend to awaken in the savage a spiritual superstition, connecting the weapon with one of his gods, and suggesting its use when his foes were wrapped in their robes of slumber" (West 1934: 323-324). Native Americans became dependent on blacksmiths to provide them with and mend their guns, axes, kettles and other metal implements. Having a blacksmith serve a tribe became one of the demands when making a treaty (West 1934). <BR> Recent research by Timothy J. Shannon has suggested that the pipe tomahawk actually originated in America due to the variety in material and sizes of eighteenth century pipe tomahawks that suggests local production by white blacksmiths working according to Native American wishes. Also the earliest unmistakable textual reference to pipe tomahawks dates back to 1748 and discussed a white blacksmith living in a Saponi Algonquian town called Shamokin in Northcumberland County, Pennsylvania, who produced "the new-fashioned pipes" or tobacco pipes with an attached hatchet. Military, diplomatic, and trade routes passed through Shamokin and thus could have contributed to the widespread use of pipe tomahawks (Shannon 2005). <BR> Richard Pohrt has also found little evidence to suggest that the pipe tomahawk itself was manufactured on a large scale in Europe. He states that some of the designs were probably derived from early English, French, and possibly Spanish weaponry. Due to the variety found in pipe tomahawks they lack the standardization usually associated with quantity production and it was rare for a pipe tomahawk to be stamped with a maker's mark, which was common with European manufacturers of metal weapons and tools. Pohrt concluded from his research on tomahawks that the pipe tomahawk could be a Native American invention since "It seems but a short step for an Indian, patiently fitting a handle in a hatchet head, to realize he had the makings of a pipe stem. The addition of a pipe bowl to the poll, or back, of his hatchet blade would produce a dual purpose object - one that could be used for chopping or smoking" (1986: 57).<BR> The pipe bowl was also made from iron or brass. An eighteenth century pipe bowl tended to be rounded and shaped like an inverted acorn, tapering toward the top. Its shape was similar to native pipes manufactured out of stone by the Algonquian peoples in the Northeast. "On native-made pipes, [these] Micmac bowls usually sat on narrow stems that were connected to a rectangular stone base. The same design is evident on eighteenth-century pipe tomahawks, with the hatchet's poll (the flat side opposite the blade) serving as a base for the stem (Shannon 2005: 604). According to Shannon this could be another piece of evidence that the pipe tomahawk originated in the Northeast.<BR> "The size of pipe tomahawk heads varied considerably, more evidence of local rather than centralized production. Early examples may be divided into three categories-small, medium, and large-based on their weight and overall length. Small pipe tomahawks, weighing in the vicinity of two hundred grams, lacked the heft necessary to serve as chopping tools, but the medium and large sizes (weighing in the range of four hundred and six hundred grams, respectively) could function quite well as tools and weapons. The dimensions of the bowl tended to remain constant between the sizes; greater variation was evident in the blade: the heavier the pipe tomahawk, the longer and wider its blade and the more diversified its functions. The lighter the pipe tomahawk, the more likely it was to be limited to use as a smoking device or presentation piece" (Shannon 2005:605). <BR> <BR> Stems or handles<BR> <BR> Native Americans usually manufactured the handles for pipe tomahawks themselves. They would take off the handle or buy or trade only pipe tomahawk heads. "Most pipe stems were made from ash or sumac, which had a soft pith in their center that could be easily removed. In the oldest method of making a stem, the wood was split, the pith scraped out, and the split pieces were glued and bound together" (Mails 1972: 256). According to Barbara A. Hail the sticky secretions from boiled buffalo cow hooves were often used as glue. As decorations, but also to hold the halves together, plating of quillwork and wrappings of hide, fur or wire were often added. Another old method was to use a wood-boring grub that was inserted in a small hole in the pith at one end of the stick and then sealed. "The stick was then heated over a fire, and the grub, following the line of least resistance, would bore his way through the pith to make his escape" (Mails 1972: 256). A more common method to remove the pith was to bore the stem with a piece of wire, usually made red hot so as to burn and harden the aperture (West 1934). Important ceremonial pipes are generally longer than other Plains pipes, ranging from thirty to sixty inches in length. Many are of the pipe-tomahawk type.<BR> "Early examples of pipe tomahawk handles include such materials as brass tacks, coiled wire, and plaited quills worked into their design, as well as decorative carvings and burn marks. In the latter part of the eighteenth century and well into the nineteenth, the decoration of pipe tomahawk handles grew more elaborate, incorporating silver and brass inlays, bands, and mouthpieces. Nineteenth-century pipe tomahawks often had handles with small, perforated protuberances, through which Indians threaded leather thongs decorated with beads, feathers, bits of cloth or metal, and even animal parts (Shannon 2005: 606). These decorations allowed Native Americans to make pipe tomahawks a personal possession that increased its value to its owner, and later, to collectors.<BR> The decoration of the stem is a mixture of colonist culture and Native American culture. "Quilled feathers for instance and fur were both Indian decorative items added to pipe tomahawk stems; the stems were also decorated by burning. Sometimes it was done with hot iron files, on other occasions the stem would be wrapped with a coil of green bark and the whole stem passed through a fire to produce, in negative, a spiral pattern after the bark had been removed. According to King European decorative ideas included wrapping the stem with copper wire and the addition of cut-out ornaments of sheet silver (1977: 27). It needs to be noted that some Native American tribes already worked with copper and silver for decoration purposes before European contact. <BR> "The pipe stem was considered to be a connecting link with the supernatural. In the very process of filling and using the pipe, all wisdom, represented by the powers of the six directions, and all things, represented by the grains of tobacco, were drawn inward to a single focal point and placed in the bowl or heart of the pipe, so that when filled the pipe contained, or really became the universe. But it was also men, for the one who filled and smoked the pipe united himself with it and brought the wisdom and power of the six directions of space within himself" (Mails 1972: 104).<BR> <BR> Uses<BR> <BR> The Seven Years' war (1756-1763), also known as the French and Indian war, saw an increase in the production and distribution of the pipe tomahawk because the English had to arm and entice their allies. The pipe tomahawk was a good product to use. The first indications of British ironworkers producing pipe tomahawks came from an inventory list by William Johnson, an Indian superintendent for the British Crown in 1756. He included an entry for "500 Pipe Hatchets neat & Strong without handles" (Shannon 2005: 598). British ironworkers could produce larger quantities for less money than the local American blacksmith. A local blacksmith could not meet the demand generated by the British crown. Intentions for use differed on these lists. Sometimes pipe tomahawks were listed in the weapons' category and sometimes among items associated with smoking indicating pipe tomahawks to be used as an item of leisure and diplomacy. "Pipe tomahawks ceased to be a novelty produced by backcountry blacksmiths and became instead part of the arsenal of material goods used by colonial agents to conduct intercultural diplomacy and outfit Indian allies" (Shannon 2005: 599).<BR> Originally pipe tomahawks were used as hand and throwing weapons, as well as smoking pipes. The relatively long length of the handle allowed the thrower to reach an object at considerable distance and many Native Americans became expert at throwing the tomahawk (West 1934). The period after the Seven Years' war saw a reduction in the production and distribution of the pipe tomahawk. It was cheaper to make regular trade hatchets and the need to persuade Native Americans with presents to fight for the British crown was not that important anymore (Shannon 2005). In the early nineteenth century the use of pipe tomahawks changed and they became more significant as pipes and symbols of authority associated with European-Indian diplomacy. <BR> Residue of burned tobacco has been found in pipe tomahawks indicating that they were indeed also used as a smoking device. Not much research has been done on whether Native Americans preferred to smoke their native pipes or metal pipe bowls. The pipe tomahawk had its advantages. It was durable and less likely to be broken or misplaced. However, Native Americans continued to manufacture their own pipes and some studies show that they preferred their own indicating that the pipe tomahawk was used as an occasional substitute and not as a replacement (Shannon 2005). <BR> "Indians smoked when they met in diplomatic councils because they believed in tobacco's ability to purge bad feelings and encourage clear thinking among the smokers" (Shannon 2005: 610). Treaty records researched by Shannon indicate that pipe tomahawks were found among smoking items used on such occasions. Pipe tomahawks were used at treaty councils when participants listened to speeches or gathered informally. However treaty records did not describe pipe tomahawks being used as ceremonial objects. There is some evidence that they did occasionally serve as substitutes for native-made calumets.<BR> When its use as a diplomatic gift increased more care was spent on creating exceptional pieces for presentation than on producing a good weapon. King (1977) suggests that this change is not solely based on the pipe tomahawk becoming an object of diplomacy but that because of the greater availability of guns and the preference for native weapons by western Plains tribes that the pipe tomahawk became less important as a weapon. The pipe tomahawk's significance as an object of diplomacy stems from its association with Indian leadership. Indian leaders regarded pipe tomahawks as prestige goods similar to medals, gorgets, ruffled shirts, and laced hats that colonial agents often presented to chiefs as marks of distinction. In fact pipe tomahawks were ordered in smaller quantities than regular trade hatchets suggesting that these were distributed with greater discrimination. This connection between pipe tomahawks and Indian leaders is also shown by the fact that they were often used as grave goods. "Grave goods served as status markers: generally, the more lavish the supply the higher the status of the person they accompanied" (Shannon 2005: 606). <BR> "During the Revolutionary (1776-1783) and Early National (1800-1830) Eras, customized pipe tomahawks became an accessory sought after by Indians and Europeans alike. Such pieces featured silver or brass inlays, silver or wire bands around the handles, and engravings with the name of the maker, giver, and recipient or the date and place of the exchange. Pieces identified as belonging to chiefs of the Seneca, Shawnee, Cherokee, Miami, and Chippewa nations during this period survive in museum collections, and they also appear as chiefly accoutrements in late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century portraits and prints. British officers who served in America during the Revolutionary Era also appropriated the pipe tomahawk as a symbol of prestige and authority. Some had elaborate, customized versions made while they were in America, and others carried samples back with them to Britain" (Shannon 2005: 614). The pipe tomahawk's increasing importance as an object of diplomacy led to its appearance on peace medals distributed by the U.S. government (Shannon 2005). <BR> After about 1850 (Shannon 2005) Native Americans, and especially the Sioux tribes, started to make tomahawk pipes out of stone fashioned after the European or American metal version. These were too fragile to use as a weapon but were probably used as pipes (West 1934) and associated with diplomacy. They could also be sold as a souvenir item. The material used to make these pipes, and sometimes even the stem, was red catlinite (King 1977). "After 1870, private collectors purchased pipe tomahawks on Indian reservations for placement in curio cabinets and museums. Some white and Indian craftsmen continued to produce them for the tourist trade that developed on Indian reservations during the early decades of the twentieth century. Today they are made for sale to historical reenactors and other hobbyists" (Shannon 2005: 620). <BR> The pipe tomahawk exhibits hybridity. "It was what anthropologist Nicholas Thomas has called an "entangled object": a physical embodiment of the differing ways colonizers and colonized perceived each other. Europeans regarded it as a weapon, souvenir, and collector's item. Indians used it as a tool, grave good, and symbol of prestige. Both groups invested it with significance as an object of diplomacy" (Shannon 2005: 593).<BR> Out of the objects that deal with the European-Indian encounter, the tomahawk, and thus also the pipe tomahawk, contributed the most to the racist stereotyping of Native Americans as being violent savages. Images portrayed in the media presented the pipe tomahawk in the perspective of Native American warfare. A weapon used by an immoral and cruel enemy associated with scalping, mutilation, and the murder of noncombatants. This is even noticeable today in the portrayal of Native Americans by Hollywood or Major League Baseball. <BR> <BR> Pipe tomahawks in the collection at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden<BR> <BR> Object 2668-3035<BR> L: 42,5 cm.<BR> <BR> The wooden handle on this pipe tomahawk is decorated with two bands of engraved geometric design consisting of a bordered cross on each end and a vertical line in the middle with forward slashes on one side and backward slashes on the other side forming a shape similar to that of a tipi or a triangle. The top of the handle has a row of 7 plus signs. Close to the mouthpiece the handle is decorated with a leather band with a fringed edge. The leather band is attached with a brass tack and a nail. Some of the fringe is missing. Close to the blade and bowl is another leather band sewn together at the bottom. The blade flares out towards handle. The blade is decorated on one side with an engraved maker's mark, a circle with 4 parts cut out forming a cross. Maker's marks are also known as touch, armourer's, axe, guild, impressed, forge, punch, stamp, and trade marks. The intent, meaning and purpose of the marks is not known and can only be guessed at (Garrad 1997). It is generally believed that a maker's mark could identify the blacksmith, trading post, Fort or company but not enough research has been done to know for sure. Maker's marks were usually added during manufacture when the axe head was red hot. The mark on this pipe tomahawk resembles marks on French Canadian metal axes. This could indicate that it is French in origin. However marks on English axes were not researched at present time. The other side of the blade has an engraved diamond shape decoration. The part between the blade and the bowl has been decorated with an engraved cross on both sides. The bowl has two engraved horizontal lines. It seems to have been made out of one piece.<BR> According to the reference card this object was purchased by the Indisch Instituut at Amsterdam and states: "Oude Gegev.: N.A.M. 336-35. Gesch. Wed. Dr. Merkes, Febr. 1914." The card also states that this object has 2 blue beads and a brown bead attached to the fringe. These are now missing.<BR> <BR> 335-18<BR> The wooden handle on this pipe tomahawk is wider close to the metal head and tapers towards the mouth piece. The handle is not decorated. The area around the mouth piece is crumbled. A stopper is visible on the other end of the shaft to close off the passage through which the smoke passes. The blade flares away from the handle. The part between bowl and blade consists of multiple layers creating a decorative effect. The part right under the bowl has a triangular layer on both sides, or file cut -V- area. The pipe bowl has rings on top and bottom. There is no maker's mark.<BR> <BR> Object 710-17<BR> L: 49,0 cm.<BR> <BR> The wooden handle on this pipe tomahawk is decorated with 8 red painted bands, four of which are close to the metal head and the others are more spread out over the handle. The blade flares both towards and from the handle. According to Baldwin (1995) such triangular blades occur mostly on the Plains and the west and can be dated to the middle half of the 19th century. Between the blade and the eye is an articulated band. Both eye and ear of the metal head are diamond in shape. The part between bowl and blade consists of multiple layers creating a decorative effect. The part right under the bowl has a triangular layer on both sides, or file cut -V- area. Pipe bowl rings with a faceted edge are placed on top and bottom of bowl. There is no maker's mark.<BR> <BR> References <BR> <BR> Baldwin, John<BR> 1995 Tomahawks - Pipe Axes - of the American Frontier, Michigan: Early American Artistry - Trading Company<BR> <BR> Ewers, John C.<BR> 1963 "Blackfoot Indian Pipes and Pipemaking", Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 186, no. 64<BR> <BR> Garrad, Charles<BR> 1997 "Iron Trade Axes from the Plater-Martin Site", Research Bulletin 12, November, Toronto Petun Research Institute<BR> <BR> Gilmore, M. R.<BR> 1919 "Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region", Washington DC: 33rd Ann. Rept., Bur. Amer. Ethn., 1911-12: 43-154<BR> <BR> Hail, Barbara A.<BR> 1980 Hau, Kóla!: The Plains Indian Collection of the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology. Brown University: Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology<BR> <BR> King, J.C.H.<BR> 1977 Smoking Pipes of the North American Indian, London: British Museum Publications Ltd.<BR> <BR> Mails, Thomas E.<BR> 1972 The Mystic Warriors of the Plains, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday<BR> <BR> McGuire, Joseph D.<BR> 1899 "Pipes and Smoking Customs of the American Aborigines", Washington DC: Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1897:351-645<BR> <BR> Murray, Robert A.<BR> 1968 Pipes on the Plains, Pipestone Indian Shrine Association<BR> <BR> Peterson, Harold L.<BR> 1965 "American Indian Tomahawks", New York: Contributions from the Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation Vol. XIX<BR> <BR> <BR> Tobacco<BR> The word tobacco stems from the Carib word tabaco, a y-shaped tube smoking device which Columbus found in use by the natives of the West Indies. Somehow the name tobacco became the term used by people around the world to designate the herb (West 1934). Plains American Indian tribes obtained tobacco from several sources. The Arikara, Mandan, and Hidatsa, as well as other sedentary tribes, cultivated tobacco on a large scale and traded much of their supply to other, more freely roaming tribes in exchange for dried meat, hides, and horses. The species they used was most likely nicotiana quadrivalvis according to several sources. Research indicates that the cultivated tobacco plants are probably of Mexican origin (Gilmore 1919: 59). Other tribes made use of wild tobacco plants (West 1934). After contact, Plains Tribes traded furs and hides for tobacco from white traders (Murray 1968).<BR> Tobacco was often mixed with different ingredients, the amount of tobacco usually being about one-third of the mixture (West 1934). It was often mixed with sumac leaves and the dried inner bark of red alder, dogwood, or red willow. The resulting mixture is called Kinnikinnick in the Algonquian languages and chan sha'sha in the Siouan languages (Murray 1968). Mixing occurred for economic reasons but it also improved the flavor. Wild tobacco was very pungent and mixing it diluted the rankness (West 1934). Tribes that did not cultivate tobacco, or had no means of acquiring it, used substitutes such as sumac, willow and many other plants as well (McGuire 1898, West 1934). <BR> Because tobacco was often in short supply its uses were limited to special occasions. It was smoked to stop evil powers, to gain protection from enemies, to bring game closer, and to invoke the blessing of supernatural powers (Mails 1972: 101). Tobacco was also smoked because of its believed medicinal powers and was used to cure just about anything. These supposed medicinal qualities was one of the reasons Europeans adopted smoking tobacco so quickly (McGuire 1898). However some tribes also had an inkling of the not so healthy effects of tobacco. Among the Blackfoot for example, young men were discouraged from smoking too much. They believed that "a young man who smokes too much has no wind" (Ewers 1963: 33).<BR> Smoking accessories to be brought along with a pipe included ""boards" of wood, antler, or stone on which smoking materials were cut or mixed; sticks for cleaning and tamping pipes; and, of course, equipment for lighting the pipe" (Murray 1968: 13). In early times, American Indians used a burning coal, carefully packed in a horn container filled with decayed wood, to light their pipe. Flint and steel were used in later times (Murray 1968).<BR> <BR>