Native American spike tomahawk, fur trade pole axes and skinning knives

[M ELEY]

Here we have a nice hammer poll axe that was obviously sold to a Native American, who refitted it with trade beads and a nice curving haft. The head is of a wedge-shaped pattern, blacksmith-made with oval eye. The shape of the haft was a popular feature around mid-century (ca 1850), but the head probably much earlier. The incredible beadwork, with tiny thread, were trade 'seed' beads and they were from the period 1760 all the way up to the late 19th. These trade beads are from Venice (where the vast majority of trade beads came from. 'Wampum', fine Venician glass beads sewn onto fabric or hide, was both a sign of power and importance among the Indian tribes). This chevron pattern is particularly eye-catching.

This axe came from an old house in the Efland, North Carolina region (a flat pastural region in the Piedmont that is still very rural even in modern times). The chief tribes in NC were the Waccamaw (coastal), Catawba (central NC) and Cherokee (mountain regions), so I believe one of these tribes to have possessed this axe. The head measures 6" from hammer to edge, with the blade width 2 1/2".

[M ELEY]

There is a huge devide among historians on the use of the term 'tomahawk' when it comes to hammer poll axes versus the classic types. Likewise, there are varying opinions as to whether Native Americans used hammer poll axes versus the more-practical-for-warfare pipe tomahawks/spike tomahawks/halberd tomahawks and Missouri war axes. I am of the solid opinion that hammer polls were traded and used by the Native Americans just as they were to settlers, fur traders and soldiers of the era. After all, the main reason the Indians valued the iron tools so much was that their stone axes (a tool and weapon) didn't hold up as well over time. Native Americans had many uses for iron tools. Perhaps the formerly mentioned weapon axes were more popular with the natives, but to say that no Indians ever used them seems laughable.

As far as the term 'tomahawk' goes, this was a word/description given to these axe types by the white men, although the word was Indian and simply meant 'axe'. Ship's log books from the early 17th century referred to the multiple types of axes coming to the New World as 'tomahawks', 'tomnahawks', 'Tomahaks', etc. We associate this term to mean axes traded to the native peoples in exchange for furs at the time. In the early periods, they would have been simple poll axes an later, spike and halberd hea types. It really wasn't until the early 19th c. that the pipe tomahawk made it's grand appearance. These axes were highly prized by the Indians (and later collectors!!!), but one has to remember these types were made of very fine materials and decorated for very important men among the tribes (chiefs, medicine-men, high-ranking warriors). They were prized possessions not every average brave carried one. This is an important point and is proven by the scarcity of pipe axes as compared to the common spike or hammer poll axe. Yet in almost EVERY studio pic or Southwest photo, there is the brave with the brass PIPE tomahawk! Why this discrepency? Why so few pics of braves with spike tomahawks, hammer polls, or halberd types? I say for two reasons.#1 is that many of these were STUDIO pics and they dressed the warriors with the weapons almost everyone associates with the tribes. And #2, because many of the pics of the time featured powerful chiefs, who would indeed be carrying their favorite pipe tomahawks!

So, the point of this is to lend support that hammer-poll axes were still tomahawks if proven to be Indian-used. Here is a pic of a hammer tomahawk similar to mine from Lar Hothem's "Indian Trade Relics", pg 113.

[CutlassCollector]

Hi Mark,

Great to re-read this thread and to see your recent additions to your collection - both nice axes.
We are familiar with the link to boarding axes and as Gilkerson pointed out, even though the Royal Navy did not officially call them Tomahawks the name was in common use by the sailors and in ship's manifests and journals.

Conversely War Office records state that ‘the Ordnance issued 300 Tommihawks on 12th August 1761 to the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Americans’ and in 1784 the 22nd Regiment is recorded as adopting it as a standard sidearm '.
Yet another spelling of tomahawk! Unfortunately it does not make clear whether these were hammer poll or spike axes.
CC

[M ELEY]

Hello David and thanks for responding. Also, thank you for that great information! In R.R. Gale's "A Soldier-like Way:The Material Culture of the British Infantry 1751-1768", among the Scottish light infantry here during the French & Indian War, the Scots "replace their (broad)swords with tomahawks and left their pistols in storage" , due to the "rough country, severe climate, and the guerrilla tactics of the French and their Indian allies." Note that in not carrying their swords, this axe replacement meant it was to be used as a weapon and not just for chopping wood! Likewise, as you pointed out, no specifics as to whether these mentioned axes were hammer polls, round eye polls or spike tomahawks. What this does point out, as many other authors have, is that the word 'tomahawk' was a loose description for any fighting axe in the field.

I feel that there were certainly hammer poll axes used by the Indians as 'hawks', especially in the earlier periods before the "peace pipe" axes of the later era. Many early sketches of Native Americans show them as carrying round axes and hammer polls, yet as far as photography is concerned, we rarely see halberd heads, spikes and hammers, always the trusty pipe axes. This again makes sense, because photography was obviously from a much later period. Unfortunately, this creates confusion among collectors who imagine that only the pipe axes were 'real' war axes, a complete fallacy. On a side note, as we have discussed in the past concerning boarding axes and their possible connection to trade tomahawks, there have even been documented early British boarding axes found among tribes bearing brass trade tacks, incised decorations burned into the haft with wire, attached beadwork, etc. The point being, for those historians blowing off the more common spike axes and hammer polls by native peoples, I say there is plenty of proof otherwise.

Tomahawk axes, be they hammer-polls, spike, etc, were ideal weapons (as shown by the Scottish light infantry carrying them here in America circa 1750's) for the American frontier-